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The Best Miners’ Gala in 50 years

The Big Meeting goes from strength to strength and its organizers have hailed the 122nd Gala, held on 8th July 2006, as “The best Miners' Gala in 50 years”, with crowds exceeding last year’s record of 70,000.

The popularity and reputation of the Gala seems to keep on growing and this year welcomed banners from South Wales and Yorkshire and a miners' choir from Belgium, who gave an impromptu performance from the music stage ahead of the speeches. There was even a performance from the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band from Northern India, complete with musicians, a fakir and a gypsy dancer.

newsIt all added to the usual pageantry of the traditional Big Meeting, and in-keeping with previous Galas, the city centre was filled to the brink with the banners and the marches of the brass bands. About 60 banners - including new ones for Esh Winning, Bowburn, Washington F Pit and Spennymoor, were proudly paraded, accompanied by 36 bands, including Scottish pipers, delighting the thousands who lined the parade route through Durham City out to the old race course where there were funfair rides and stalls and speeches were held and live entertainment was provided on stage by X-factor stars Journey South.

John Humble, DAMHA Director said “This has been a Saturday filled with tradition - old and new. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate past heritage and enjoy a family day out. What is remarkable is the way in which the Big Meeting attracts increasingly bigger crowds and it was inspiring to see the new banners that are the result of a lot of commitment and effort from individuals and organisations who share a belief in the values that the banners symbolise. It demonstrates that although the collieries may have gone the spirit of our former mining communities lives on.”

newsThe Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Dr Tom Wright blessed the new banners in Durham Cathedral at the traditional, 3pm service.

It was the first time since the 1960s that a banner from the Esh Winning colliery had been in the parade and was accompanied by Bearpark and Esh Colliery Band, playing ‘The Banner’, a march composed for the occasion by percussionist Allan Beaumont.

Bob Heslop (72), founder of the village’s banner group said: “It was just fantastic, brilliant, to see everything come together. It is marvelous when the banner goes up and you get to the top of North Road and the band starts off with that first march”.

The Bowburn Banner was designed by local children, young people and adults using a photo from the 1950s as a template for the banner and as work progressed, the group realised they wanted to let the community take a prominent place in the finished artwork. So, for a £20 donation, people could have the faces of their relatives or themselves featured on the banner, almost making it a Bowburn Banner of Fame.

newsThe new Washington F Pit banner was even the subject of a tribute in Parliament in recognition of the community effort to preserve an important part of the area’s industrial heritage.

Spennymoor’s new Heritage Banner is a new design and replaces the banners of the town’s former pits which are now too fragile to parade.

The weather is always a worry on Gala Day but this year DAMHA came prepared for the heat with a donation of 300 bottles of ‘97’ bottled tap water from Northumbrian Water as part of their drive to promote drinking water for a healthy life.