BANNERS are as integral part of the Durham Miners’ Gala as the bands and the speeches. They add a billowing colour to the proceedings, and they are a political statement of arrival and of comradeship with many lodges choosing a person who represented their ideals to be their face held high above their heads.
The Crookhall banner crosses the Wear on its way to the racecourse in 1954. The detail on the picture is fantastic, from the men in their best suits to the boy in his cap at the front and the chap on the right with a fabulous moustache smeared across his face
You can see that pride etched on the faces of the men of Crookhall Lodge, from near Consett. This is the 1954 gala so it was the first outing for their new banner which on one side had a design entitled “Britain’s Basic Industry” while facing the camera is “Dignity Through Labour” with the figure of a Durham miner central amid illustrations of different aspects of the coalfield. The men of Crookhall are in their best suits; the little chap at the front is in his poshest hat, and the fellow on the right has been up all night smearing that magnificent moustache across his face.
READ MORE: TRAILING BEHIND TRIMDON: MY BIG DAY OUT AT THE DURHAM MINERS' GALA
A picture from 1935 of the banners arriving at the racecourse
But banners go back much further than just miners. In medieval times, the trades guilds would process through the streets of Durham behind their banners to the cathedral on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday at the end of May or beginning of June.
That ceremony was curtailed by the Civil War of the mid 17th Century, but it never died out, and the miners reinvigorated it when they started forming unions in the 1830s. They held mass meetings of up to 40,000 men and the banners advertised the presence in the struggle of each individual district.
Guarding the banners and the instruments at the racecourse in this undated picture
One of the earliest descriptions of a banner is from November 7, 1863, when there was a gathering of miners of The Batts at Bishop Auckland. It was graced by a banner which said it was from the “Spennymoor district, Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Mutual Confident Association” and it bore a quote derived from the Bible:
He doeth well, who doeth good
To those of his own brotherhood.
He doeth better, who doth strive,
To keep his brethren all alive.
Some fine macs in evidence as men from Leasingthorne pose with their banner in 1950
The first recognised Durham Miners’ Gala was held in August 1871, and banners were present. In 1873, exactly 150 years ago, the Darlington & Stockton Times estimated that 80,000 miners, wives, sweethearts and friends were present along with 130 banners and 115 bands.
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The Northern Echo said: “The inhabitants turned out en masse to witness the monster procession, listen to the inspiriting strains of the different bands and to admire and criticise the almost numberless banners borne aloft by stalwart standard bearers.”
Banners from Willington and Brancepeth process along Elvet in 1961
The paper noted that at the racecourse, the speeches and political motions “went off flatly, by far the greater proportion of the vast company preferring to spend their time in leisurely strolling round the course, and examining the many beautiful and expensive banners on the ground”.
The Wheatley Hill banner in 1971 featuring its local hero, Peter Lee
There was also a second type of banner at the 1873 gala. “The managers of the demonstration issued placards requesting visitors to abstain from any wanton destruction of the hedges etc, and the appeal was respected almost to the letter,” said the Echo.
Indeed, despite the enormity of the crowd, only two casualties needed any attention, “both being drunken women, of whom there were quite as many as of the sterner sex to be seen staggering about the streets during the evening”.
One of those was “a half stupefied female” who walked into a wagon, and the other was a “tipsy matron” who fell out of her train home.
The Langley Park banner arrives at the 1954 gala. It appears to be draped in black, which signified that one or more lives had been lost in the pit in the preceeding year
What does it feel like to have your face on a banner? Harold Wilson watches from the County balcony as the Horden banner bearing his image goes past
A great message from the Hetton Lyons miners at the 1950 gala
READ MORE: THE CURIOUS STORY OF THE SPADE THAT TURNED THE FIRST SOD AT AYCLIFFE 75 YEARS AGO
Craghead banner leaves the cathedral having been blessed in 1939
Harton and Westoe Lodge banner marches onto Elvet bridge in 1976, draped in mourning black for a miner who had been killed at work during the previous year
A crowded Elvet in 1966 as the banners and bands go by
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