A Treasury of Tyneside Tales
A Treasury of Tyneside Tales invited intergenerational community groups across Newcastle to explore and discover local folklore, culminating in an exhibition of hand-made 'Crankies' at the Great North Museum: Hancock
Artwork by Anna-Marie Galares
'Crankie Theatre'
Also known as a Crankie Machine. A traditional Story-telling device.
Crankies are 19th century story-telling devices. By turning a crank, an illustrated scroll is pulled across an illuminated screen in a box. As the images pass the screen, the story-teller narrates. Once a popular form of entertainment, Crankies went out of fashion when the cinema was invented.
During 2025/2026 Moving Parts worked with over 155 intergenerational participants to create 104 Crankies, helping to keep this dying artform alive. The Crankies were displayed as part of The Great North Museum's flagship Treasure Exhibition, uncovering the treasure of oral histories, heritage and local folkore.
"What a fabulous range of stories - how wonderful so many people were involved"
– Exhibition visitor
Workshops
The brief for each participant was to think of a story from their life in Tyneside and, inspired by local folklore and a special visit to look at archival material in the Great North Museum's library, sprinkle a bit of magic on the tale; make it into a modern, folklore story.
Some stories in the Crankies are faithful accounts of things that really happened, some have been developed almost beyond recognition into mad and magical modern folklore tales, and others are somewhere in between. Each of these stories however, started with a real memory of life here in Tyneside.
"“When the children were told they could go out to play, one of the young ones asked if I was going out to play too… I nearly cried.”."
– Older Workshop Participant
Community Exhibition
All of the incredible Crankies created by workshop participants were shared at The Great North Museum: Hancock. Using an iPad, visitors were also able to watch films of the Crankies in action, seeing the illustrations move across the screen while the creator tells their story.
The exhibition also included a 5 metre long, visual evaluation Crankie Scroll, which told the story of the project, hand-painted by local visual artist Anna-Marie Gallares, and a sound-scape made of the voices of participants with music by Ruth Lyons.
