This website will be an ongoing process which we hope will lead to more opportunities to work on ever more interesting North East projects in the coming years. We hope that we are fulfilling Gillian’s vision, but it is hard work.
She has entrusted a lot of responsibility to us, and challenged us to use our imaginations when deciding on how to spend the charity’s funds. We have been involved in some fantastic ventures over the years, and hopefully there are many more to come in the near future.
We hope you enjoy this website, and look forward to more challenging Trustee meetings in the coming years. We hope that we are fulfilling Gillian’s vision. She has challenged us to use our imaginations.
GILLIAN MARY DICKINSON had a passion for the arts where she worked for the majority of her life. Her early years were spent at the British Council as editor of British Book News before setting up her own publishing company, Barrowden Books, later to be rebranded as The Spreddon Press. After leaving the British Council, Gillian worked as an educational publisher, for Stanley Thornes, travelling all over the world to develop agencies.
After retiring from Thornes, Gillian started The Spredden Press, specialising in books about Northumberland and County Durham. Publications such as P Anderson Graham’s ‘Highways and Byways in Northumbria’ (1988) and James Reed’s ‘The Border Ballads’ (1991) set the tone for future titles such as Christine E Jackson’s ‘Prideaux John Selby’ (1992) and Gillian’s last book, ‘Corbridge: The Last Two Thousand Years’ (2000), which has proved a popular title.
Gillian died in 2002, a week after enjoying her 70th birthday with her family in London. Her funeral was held at St. Andrews, Corbridge, her Parish Church. She left most of her assets to a Trust, known today as the Gillian Dickinson Trust.