The Durham Miners' Gala, founded by Pete Doherty, is a large annual gathering and

labour festival A labour festival (in the US, 'labor festival') is a festival related to the labour movement usually occurring annually. Labour festivals are some of the biggest political gatherings in Europe. Often they are outdoors in the summer and (more akin t ...

held on the second Saturday in July in the city of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, England. It is associated with the coal mining heritage (and particularly that of miners'

trade unionism A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

) of the

Durham Coalfield The Durham Coalfield is a coalfield in north-east England. It is continuous with the Northumberland Coalfield to its north. It extends from Bishop Auckland in the south to the boundary with the county of Northumberland along the River Tyne in the ...

, which stretched throughout the traditional County of Durham. It is also locally called "The Big Meeting" or "Durham Big Meeting". In the context of the Durham Miners' Gala, "gala" is usually pronounced rather than the more common pronunciation . Its highlight consists of a parade of banners, each typically accompanied by a brass band, which are marched to the old Racecourse, where political speeches are delivered. In the afternoon a miners' service is held in Durham Cathedral, which may include the blessing of any new banners. The 2020 and the 2021 Galas were cancelled due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

History

The gala developed out of the miners' trade unionism, the first union being established in 1869. The

Durham Miners' Association The Durham Miners' Association (DMA) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1869 and its membership quickly rose to 4,000, but within a year had fallen back to 2,000. In December 1870, William Crawford becam ...

organised the first gala, which was held in 1871 in Wharton Park, Durham. It developed into the largest unofficial

miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

and trade-union gathering in the United Kingdom. At its peak the gala attracted more than 300,000 people – more than seven times the population of Durham itself. Banners would traditionally be taken on foot from its particular colliery into Durham and the event was marked by large unions of men marching on the roads leading into the city. The gala was cancelled from 1915 to 1918 (because of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

), 1921, 1922 and 1926 (all because of strikes) and again from 1940 to 1945 because of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1926 however the gala was held outside of Durham city, organised by miners in the village of Burnhope some 7 miles to the north of Durham itself, this marks the first and only time the gala has been held in some place other than the city. 40,000 miners from across the county marched up the hill to the village to be addressed by General Secretary of the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

A. J. Cook. The effect of the 1984–85 miners' strike, which saw miners across the Durham Coalfield strike, also led to the gala being called off in 1984. The closure of collieries in County Durham, particularly after the Second World War, reduced the numbers attending the gala. Nonetheless, even if a colliery was closed the banner was often still marched. In 2020, the Durham Miners Association cancelled the event due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

Pandemic. The centenary gala was held in 1983.

Present day

No deep mines remain in the Durham Coalfield, compared to over a hundred at the coalfield's peak. Despite this, the gala continues to be organised. The 122nd gala, held in 2006, attracted over 50,000 people, and approximately 100,000 attended in 2009, making it one of the biggest political gatherings in Europe. During the morning banners are still marched to the racecourse with its tradition of speeches (recent notable speakers have included

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

, Billy Bragg and Ken Livingstone) then in the afternoon to the cathedral. In 2012 Labour Party leader

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...

addressed the 128th gala; he was the first Labour Party leader to speak at the gala for 23 years, the last one being

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

in 1989. He praised the event as "a great North East tradition" and attacked the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, saying it had "lost a generation of young people". In 2015, all four candidates in the Labour leadership election appeared at the gala, but only

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

, who had already secured the endorsement of the Durham Miners' Association, was asked to give a speech to the gala. After winning the leadership contest, Corbyn addressed the event as Labour leader every year from 2016 to 2019. In September 2019, a feature-length documentary about the gala was released. ''The Big Meeting'' screened across the UK and received a host of positive national reviews, including a four-star review from

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of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', in which he described the film as a "rich, heartfelt and intimate tribute to the Durham Miners’ Gala." in 2022 After being cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic the gala returned with attendance being over 200,000 the largest gala since before the miners strike. One of the keynote speakers was Mick lynch general secretary of the RMT union. Who said it was time for the working class to "rise up" and combat the tory government of then prime minister boris johnson. Also said that if Kier starmer would not support the unions he would be brushed away.

Banners

Most banners in the gala represent lodges of the National Union of Mineworkers in the Durham Area. However other unions have also been represented, particularly in recent years, as well as union banners from other parts of the UK, including NUM lodges of the Yorkshire branch and South Wales. They are made of silk, are rectangular and hang from a cross member, from which guide ropes are held by those carrying it.Durham Miner Project – Banners of Durham Miners' Union 1869 to the present
Traditionally banners were draped in black cloth when there had been a death in the pit during the previous year. More recently following the closure of pits across the county they are draped with black cloth on significant anniversaries of disasters at the colliery they represent. Many banners contain explicit socialist or communist references, having renderings of

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

, and other prominent figures such as miners' leaders, or politicians. Chopwell, often referred to as " Little Moscow",Roy Lambeth's Durham Miners Gala Banner Photographs. 1983
has the only banner (the 1955 version) that contains images of both Marx and Lenin (as well as the hammer and sickle). The 1935 Chopwell banner toured the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and is thought to reside somewhere in Moscow today. Socialist expressions also take the form of captions—for example, "Socialism through evolution" and "Need before greed" (on Blackhall Lodge's banner). Christian themes having a socialist resonance also figure on some banners. Three successive banners of Lumley Lodge (1929, 1960, 2005) have depicted the "Lion and Lamb" and "Turning Swords into Ploughshares" images from the book of Isaiah on either side, uniquely the only all biblical banners in the Durham coalfield. More recently, residents in former pit villages have taken it upon themselves to restore, or even create, banners. This has involved the reintegration of collieries that had left the gala. Some banners, such as

Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers Green and Tudhoe. History Origins The ...

's, represent a ''group'' of former local collieries rather than individual ones. These have received funding from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

.Durham Miners Gala – Heritage Lottery Fund

References

External links

Friends of the Durham Miners' Gala

Durham Mining Museum

Videos