 The origins of the Institute stem from William Turner, minister of the Hanover Square Chapel, just behind the position of Newcastle railway station.He began Newcastle's first Sunday School, 'a focus of light and learning' for the town.One of his students, John Buddle, became a viewer (mining engineer) and wealthy mine owner, and member of the Literary and Philosophical Society and the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Natural History Society of Northumbria).