The Durham Miners' Gala, founded by

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, is a large annual gathering and

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held on the second Saturday in July in the city of Durham, England. It is associated with the coal mining heritage (and particularly that of miners' trade unionism) of the Durham Coalfield, 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 The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

, which may include the blessing of any new banners. The 2020 and the 2021 Galas were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

History

The gala developed out of the miners' trade unionism, the first union being established in 1869. The Durham Miners' Association organised the first gala, which was held in 1871 in Wharton Park, Durham. It developed into the largest unofficial miners 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 List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

), 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

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. 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 quick ...

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

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Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music i ...

and

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office ...

) 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. Miliba ...

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

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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 socialis ...

, 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 Peter Bradshaw of ''

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'', 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 Chopwell is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, west of Rowlands Gill and north of Hamsterley. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 9,395. In 1150, Bishop Pudsey granted the Manor of Chopwell to ...

, 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 hammer and sickle (Unicode: "☭") zh, s=锤子和镰刀, p=Chuízi hé liándāo or zh, s=镰刀锤子, p=Liándāo chuízi, labels=no is a symbol meant to represent proletarian solidarity, a union between agricultural and industr ...

). The 1935 Chopwell banner toured the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

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 The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...

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's, represent a ''group'' of former local collieries rather than individual ones. These have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.Durham Miners Gala – Heritage Lottery Fund

References

External links

Friends of the Durham Miners' Gala

Durham Mining Museum

Videos