Tom Hutchinson

As a new author writing notes for maps, I am keen to familiarise myself with the places I write about, all be it up to 100 years after the maps were originally surveyed. Consequently, it is important to put my boots on and walk the map area today. Change is occurring all the time, but one can still see vestiges of the area as it was in the past. Source material such as trade directories and local histories also play an important role in drawing out key features of maps. It is six decades since I studied geography at university, but the fascination with looking at, identifying and relating maps to society in the particular era remains.

I come from Bishop Auckland originally but now live in Birtley. I took a degree in Geography (specialising in Historical Geography) at Hull in the dim and distant past and worked in the electricity supply industry for 36 years, mostly in personnel & training. Since 1999 I've written 20 local history pictorial books on South West Durham - Bishop Auckland, Shildon, Barnard Castle and The Tees Valley, Gaunless Valley, Weardale areas - including John Thomas Saunders: 70 Year Search for a Bishop Auckland Soldier's Grave and (jointly) The Weardale Railway: Rebirth of a Heritage Line. In all the books I make use of maps, trade directories, census information and other historical sources.

Before writing books I regularly wrote articles in Picture Postcard Monthly, usually on topographical locations - e.g. Bishop Auckland, Newcastle, Hull, Bognor Regis, Sidmouth, Eyam (plague village), Interlaken - or on military regiments - D.L.I., Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, Black Watch, Gordon Highlanders - as well as one on Stan Laurel's Early Years in the U.K. I also give talks on Mary Ann Cotton, Stan Laurel and Bishop Auckland. My latest book on Bishop Auckland postcards was published in 2021.