The Bradshaw-Bewick Collection contains works by and relating to the engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). Bewick was born at Cherryburn, near Mickley, Northumberland and his early interest in drawing, under the tuition of the Reverend C. Gregson, was later developed when he was apprenticed under the Newcastle engraver, Ralph Beilby. He was to become a master craftsman.Bewick had a particular fascination with the natural world and this is reflected in works such as A general history of quadrupeds (1790) and History of British birds (1797). The collection is strong in Bewick's other main area of interest - morals and fables. His Select fables (1784) was immediately popular and ran into several editions but he worked on many small moral instruction books, such as Youth's instructive and entertaining story-teller (1778) and The looking-glass for the mind (1792).

19th Century printed ephemera, much of which originates from North East England.

The Crawhall Collection is a wonderfully-diverse and visual collection of material by and relating to local businessman, artist and patron of the arts, Joseph Crawhall II (1821-1896). The published book portion of this collection comprises of 23 volumes and includes chapbooks, such as Olde ffrendes with newe faces (1883), A Jubilee Thought (1887) and Old Aunt Elspa's ABC [1884].

This is a small collection comprising 26 volumes of printed music and books about music, dating from the Eighteenth and early-Nineteenth Centuries, from the library of the late Hugh Vernon (d. 1975), including An account of the musical performances in Westminster-Abbey, and the Pantheon: May 26th, 27th, 29th; and June the 3d, and 5th, 1784. In commemoration of Handel by Charles Burney (1785) and the undated The Cuckoo: A Pastoral Ballad set by Mr Arne, Sung at Vauxhall by Mrs Weichsel [Mrs Frederika Weichsel is recorded as having performed at Vauxhall Gardens, London, and was reportedly a pupil of J.S. Bach].