The Year was 1854 and the neat single storey stone building stood on the east side of Walton Place a road which had in earlier years been called `Bridge Loaning' or `Lonnen' in the Tynedale vernacular and was late re-named Church Street. To the west the windows gave a clear view of the Three Tuns Inn, which stood adjacent to the highway leading towards Whitechapel and to the south, across the middle reaches of the river Tyne, to the Anchor Inn, the Alms Houses and the Humbledon Fell beyond.

A Library and Newsroom had been established in 1836 on the south side of the village, chiefly through the efforts of Dr. Elliot and Mr N. Parker of Hill House. The building on the north side was erected by public subscription in 1841 on a site leased from the commissioners of Greenwich Hospital. In 1868 the Trustees entered into an agreement to lease the site at 10 shillings a year for 80 years but in June 1877 the freehold was purchased for £25, on behalf of the Trustees, by the Chairman J. J. Harle of Mill Hills. In 1886 John Urwin (Jnr.) was Secretary and Miss Phillis Woodman was Librarian, a smoking and recreation room was added and the library, which contained over 800 volumes, increased by means of public subscription and a legacy left by Thomas Coats Esq.

Into the 20th century, the extended building was to become a most popular venue for those village men who professed to be expert in the game of billiards and later, the arguably less skillful but more popular snooker. The Armstrong's, Brown's, Kent's, Tait's and Thompson's were amongst those men of the parish who were to spend many happy and contented hours, in the challenge and competition on the table in the upper floor room, where a large black-leaded solid fuel stove provided a comforting warmth.

In the front room below, a pall of smoke from clay pipes filled the air as 'Geordie' Laverick and Alfie Kent mulled over the contentious issues of the day, while at the rear Maurice Armstrong and Jeff Burrows joined others in a discreet card school.

In 1854, however, the rooms were in the main used by the forebears of those previously mentioned, for quiet reading, lecture on philosophy and the like and general discourse. It was a welcome retreat from mothers and wives who would be busying themselves at home patching work clothes, darning socks and preparing a leek pudding for the next wholesome meal. The men of the parish pored over broadsheets such as the 'Newcastle Journal' the Newcastle (weekly) Chronicle and the Newcastle Courant and Guardian, seeking news from home 'and abroad. The room was a sanctuary both for men of means and those who found work hard to come by or were `laid off'.

In was in the back room of the Library and Newsroom that Thomas Apedaile Esq. An esteemed committee member whose family lived in Bank House, made a remarkable discovery. Whilst turning the pages of heavy ledger which contained details of the affairs of the Newsroom, as written by Mr Matthew Cowing, secretary, an envelope of fine quality fell from the pages onto the table at which he sat. Apedaile withdrew the paper which was neatly folded within and could hardly contain his excitement as he digested its contents. The note paper was headed with an address: `Lindsey House' Chelsea, Middlesex and it informed those to whom it may concern that the writer had for fourteen of his formative years lived in Haydon Bridge. The correspondence continued in essence to credit the time spent in the Tyne and Allen valleys and northern hills near Hadrian's Wall, for the inspiration from which his work developed in later years. The writer made it clear that he was willing to provide examples of his work in the form of signed impressions, to be displayed in the Library and Newsroom of his native village.

The correspondence was signed, `John Martin'.

Sixty-five years earlier, on 19th July 1789, John Martin was born just outside the village of Haydon Bridge in a one roomed cottage at East Land Ends, the same building where Charles and Colleen McDonald live with their family today. John's father, Fenwick Martin, had moved there with Isabella his wife and their three children Richard, Jonathan and Ann. John recalled in later years that 'by birth my station could scarcely be have been humbler than it was'. He left Haydon Bridge Grammar School when he was 14 years old in 1803, to start his adult life during which he became internationally famed through his paintings.

The correspondence which so excited the finder was dated many months earlier and it surprised him that it hadn't been alluded to by either the secretary or the librarian of the Newsroom. He was determined to put things right immediately however and sat down that very day to draft a reply in the affirmative. It was with mounting anticipation that he placed the correspondence in the hands of Mr W. Walton, the village Postmaster and urged that it be despatched without delay.

Since 1850 John Martin's home had been at 'Lindsey House', Chelsea in London and his summers and autumns were spent on the Isle of Man. Following a paralytic seizure on November 12th 1853, John died in Douglas at 6 o'clock on February 17th 1854, and seven days later was buried at Kirk Braddan Cemetery. Following the committal, family and friends returned to the house on Finch Road' where he had spent so much of the final years of his life. The first of the mourners across the threshold bent low to pick from the floor an item of correspondence which had been delivered earlier. Had the mourner taken more than a cursory glance he would have noticed that it was clearly post-marked Haydon Bridge, Northumberland. The letter sent from the place of his birth had arrived as, perhaps, our village's most famous son lay on his death bed.

So the signed engravings John Martin wished to leave to his native village as a memento of his life were never hung in the Library and Newsroom.

The 'Reading Room', as it became known, continued to flourish well into the next century of course and the committee did eventually procure three later copies of Martin's Judgement paintings which hung in the ground floor rooms in his memory.

Sadly, with the advent of television and a significant change in the recreational pursuits of the younger people of the village, the Trustees determined that the Reading Room could no longer be sustained as a viable concern. Joe Armstrong, Johnny Brown and Billy Cooper had little alternative but to oversee the winding up of the organisation which had given so much pleasure to the men of the village over a period of 120 years.

The building was sold and Robert Harding received a donation on behalf of the village football club, to support their purchase of land at Low Hall Farm. In 1972 the balance of £315 was passed to the recently formed Community Association.

In the summer of the year 2000, as I watch Neil tending his prize-winning hanging baskets which now adorn the West wall of the old building I recall how proud I was when I became a member of the Reading Room and I hung the long, black metal tube, which contained my snooker cue, handed down to me by my father, on one of the many hooks on the wall at the end of the first floor room.

I wonder, when Neil and Gillian are tucked up in bed at night, do the newly weds give any thought to the many stories that those old, stone walls could tell?