THE Durham Miners' Gala has gone from being a dying event in the 1990s to a spectacle that attracts people in the sort of numbers it enjoyed when the county still had working pits.

Each year sees more banners paraded as communities track down the old lodge standards and restore them or commission new ones based on past designs reflecting the post-mining era.

The last time Bowburn paraded its banner was in 1967, shortly before the village's colliery was closed, but a group of villagers is determined that Bowburn will be among the throng at next year's Big Meeting.

Monday night is the inaugural meeting of the Bowburn Banner Group, which aims to raise about £27,000 to restore the existing banner, which dates from 1959. The group also wants to make a new banner featuring a new design on one side and on the other side the image of a 1919 banner.

Next year also marks the 100th anniversary of Bowburn Colliery's decline and the group's formation comes at a time when the village is looking to the future with plans for a regeneration scheme.

Durham City councillor Mike Syer, secretary of the steering group, said the 1919 banner was unusual because it depicted not leading union or Labour movement figures but Edith Cavell, the British nurse who was executed by the Germans during World War One for allegedly helping prisoners to escape.

That design will feature on the new banner and on the other side will be a design to be agreed through a community project involving local schoolchildren, ex-miners and their families that will go through the history and traditions of Bowburn.

Coun Syer said: "The later banner is unique because on both sides it features aerial views. One is of the Durham Racecourse on Gala day and the other is of the miners' convalescent home at Conishead Priory in Cumbria.

"The banner ended up in the offices of the Colliery Officials and Staffs Association in Mansfield.

"Although it is very old it is in better condition than you would expect. It will need a conservator to do the work."

The group hopes to raise funds itself and has grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.

The banners will be kept at the community centre in cases made from the wooden pews of Christ the King Church, which closed last year.

The meeting is at 7.30pm in Bowburn Community Centre in Durham Road. Already the group has planned a fundraising event - a brass concert by the Reg Vardy Band, formerly the Ever Ready Band, a Gala day favourite.

The concert will be held in the community centre on Friday, February 25, although the details have to be finalised.

Coun Syer said he hoped as many people as possible would attend Monday's meeting and get involved with the new group.