Picture Gallery

Click on an album below to see each set of photographs:

• Oldest, largest, longest…

  What is the oldest document or the biggest book in the archives? Use this album to take a look at some of our collections.

• War horse

  Following the release of the blockbuster Spielberg film “War Horse” in January 2012 and the successful stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book, Durham County Record Office presents a story of war horses from the North East in World War One. This album contains photographs and extracts from the diary of Sergeant George Thompson of Sunderland who enlisted in the 7th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry in 1910. Three generations of the Thompson family had worked at the Vaux Brewery in Sunderland where George probably worked with the dray horses. In April 1915 he went to France and drove limber wagons carrying rations and ammunition to the front line. His concern for his horses is evident throughout the diary you will see here and, remarkably, one horse survived until the end of the war.