Blankenburgs, Valdemars
Valdemars Blankenburgs (1907-1991) was Chief Inspector of Engineers for the Forestry in Latvia when World War Two broke out. As he saw his country becoming less safe under German and Russian control, he fled with his wife and three children. He finally reached the UK in 1947 as a refugee and, at the end of that year, took up a post as surveyor for Kielder Forest, when there was less than a mile of forest road. The War had made great demands on wood from UK forests and major expansion was urgently needed in 1948 and the following years. By the time that he retired in 1971, he had helped to create a network of over 500 miles of forestry roads with the associated structures to harvest old and plant new areas of forest in the Upper North Tyne Valley and Redesdale.
As he walked over 12,000 miles to survey the new roads and areas for planting, he took over 10,000 photographs of everyone and everything that he saw. He is an outstanding example of a man, who came with virtually nothing but, after making Kielder and the North Tyne Valley home for himself and his family, left (1) a legacy that is now Kielder Forest and (2) a unique photographic archive.
Valdemars Blankenburgs is the only person to have recorded so thoroughly and for such an extended period the development of Kielder Forest and the surrounding area, part of which now lies under Kielder Reservoir, with the associated transition from farming to forest.
The aim of the Heritage Centre in Bellingham is to make this unique archive available for all who are interested in Kielder Forest and the Upper North Tyne Valley and Redesdale and to create greater awareness of the contributions that refugees like Valdemars Blankenburgs and other new arrivals have made to the local community.
The Heritage Centre Bellingham has held or is holding the following exhibitions related to Valdemars Blankenburgs:
- 2022 small exhibition of his photographs relating to Plashetts and the surrounding. area
- 2024 exhibition of his photographs relating to Kielder Forest and his photography. (A booklet on the life and work of Valdemars Blankenburgs will accompany this exhibition.)