A documentary produced by Puddle Productions on the history of the Durham and Northumberland Miners Association framed around both the 116th Durham Miners Gala that took place on Saturday 8th July 2000 and the Northumberland Miners Millennium Picnic taking place in Ashington on the 15th July the same year. Presented by Hilary St John the film focuses on the work that is being done in many mining communities to keep their traditions alive even after the closure of the pits. Title: This...

A documentary produced by Puddle Productions on the history of the Durham and Northumberland Miners Association framed around both the 116th Durham Miners Gala that took place on Saturday 8th July 2000 and the Northumberland Miners Millennium Picnic taking place in Ashington on the 15th July the same year. Presented by Hilary St John the film focuses on the work that is being done in many mining communities to keep their traditions alive even after the closure of the pits. Title: This programme is dedicated to the memory of: John (Maxie) Mason 1916-1991 (Ryhope Colliery 1930-1967, Wearmouth 1969-1974) Joseph Mason 1914-1978 (Ryhope Colliery 1928-1966, Seaham 1966-1977) Relative and friend who died in the Easington Colliery Disaster. Title: also Michael McDermott 1890-1966, (Crook Dunston & Watergate Collieries 1903-1954). H. M. St John’s paternal grandfather Title: and to all the Pitmen who worked and died in the Coalfields of Britain. John Mason and Hilary St John, September 2000 Credit: Puddle Productions present At Ferryhill the Dean & Chapter and Mainsforth lodge banner parades through the town alongside the banner of the Durham Miners Association passing onlookers watching from the pavement. Marching in front of their banners the Ferryhill Town Band and at the head of the procession a man dressed in mining overalls, helmet and carrying a safety lamp. Title: Brass and Banners The parade continues to make their way through the town towards a waiting coach where everyone climbs onboard. In Durham the banners and brass band parade through the city. As they approach the County Hotel on Old Elvet the crowds begin to applaud including veteran Labour politician Tony Benn who stands on the hotels balcony alongside other dignitaries watching the procession passing by. The procession comes to a stop, the man in the mining overall doffs his helmet to the crowds. An archive still showing the gala procession from 1953 changes to the Angel of the North at Gateshead. At its base if the statue local arts historian Hilary St John who begins to give a history of the northeast coalfield which feature both maps of the area and other stills. Standing beside the statue of Charles William Vane Stewart, 3rd Marquis of Londonderry in Durham Market Place, Hilary St John provides details of the man’s connection to the local coal industry and of the statue itself. The lighthouse at the end of Seaham Harbour, nearby traffic passing a sign for a new housing development on the site of the former Vane Tempest Colliery. Under scaffolding Seaham Hall, the former home of Lord Londonderry, nearby a street named after the English romantic poet Lord Byron who married Annebella Milbank at Seaham Hall in 1815. The church of St Mary the Virgin in the town and the gravestones of many of the men killed in Lord Londonderry’s mines. In the distance the Penshaw Monument changes to closer views of the memorial to John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham built in the style of an ancient Greek temple. At Earston the memorial to the 204 miners who were killed in an accident at Hartley Pit of January 1862. At Ashington a parade of civic dignitary’s marching in front of a series of miner’s banners and brass bands through the town as part of the Northumberland Miners Millennium Picnic. Banners includes those for Ellington, Lynemouth and Ashington branches of the Northumberland Miners Association parade alongside banners for other unions such as the Confederation of Heath Service Employees and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). At Woodhorn Colliery Museum in Ashington the banners arrive, inside a marquee British trade unionist and former President of the National Union of Miner Workers Arthur Scargill gives a humours speech much to the amusement of the audience. Following Arthur Scargill, the presentation of awards for a brass band competition intercut with that of a band performing to a small crowd in the centre of Ashington. The towers of Durham Cathedral in the far distance changes to the parade of banners and brass bands through Durham making their way along Silver Street turning into Saddler Street, in the near distance the procession behind making its way across Framwellgate Bridge. The bands and banners make their way past the County Hotel on Old Elvet again stopping to perform for the dignitaries on the balcony above. A string quartet made up of students from Durham University School of Music perform on Old Elvet as pedestrians pass by. The statue once again of Charles William Vane Stewart, 3rd Marquis of Londonderry in Durham Market Place and Hilary St John now sitting on a bollard outside the nearby Market Tavern. An archive photograph of Durham Miners Association delegates from 1872 changes to Hilary St John standing outside the Robins Cinema at 58 North Road, the first purpose-built building for the Durham Miners Association. An archival image of the building with marble statues of the founding fathers of the association standing in first-floor window niches. Outside the Redhills Durham Miner’s Hall on Flass Hill Hilary St John looks at the same four statues of the founding fathers mentioned earlier in the film and now standing on plinths in the grounds nearby. Archival images of Miner’s Hall and the banner of New Herrington Miners’ lodge which features the hall. Inside views of the main meeting chamber and some of the nearby offices. Back outside the Millennium Garden with the sculpture of a miner pushing a coal wagon, a memorial to all those who lost their lives in the Durham coalfield in the past 200 years. Another sculpture nearby of a pit-pony pulling a wagon changes to a series of archival images of ponies working underground. More images show men working in cramp dangerous conditions followed by those of women and boys working on the surface and mining communities and families of the past. A group of older people sit on the steps leading from Saddler Street onto Elvet Bridge changes to a row of retired miners’ cottages at Hetton-le-Hole with decorative flowerpots or beds around the properties. Another row of cottages, this time William Keers Crescent at Ferryhill changing to the banner of Ryhope Miners’ Lodge being paraded through Durham as part of the gala. Large crowds watch more banners make their way through the city including that of the Aged Mineworks Homes Association. Children from a former pit village perform a dance routine outside the County Hotel, the crowds applaud as they finish and begin to march off behind their own home-made banner and brass band. On the River Wear below Framwellgate Bridge two quad rowing boats while on the bridge above banners continue to cross. A brass band begins to perform ‘Riverdance’ while large crowds walk past five sets of miner’s banners waiting on the bridge to progress. The parade of banners and brass come along Silver Street and Old Evet, a brass band stops and perform in from of the County Hotel, Tony Benn and the other dignities watch on. On Durham Racecourse small children enjoy a merry-go-round as a brass band arrives. On a small stage a group of men perform a traditional clog and rapier dance intercut with archive images of young people enjoying the gala in previous years. More banners and crowds arrive at the racecourse intercut with more images of crowds enjoying the gala from the past. Some of the crowds sit along raised banks, resting against a nearby fence several banners. A pipe band marches onto the racecourse in front of the Usher Moor Lodge banner featuring the Miner’s Hall image on the front. On the raised platform dignities stand as ‘Gresford’ is played to commemorate all the lives lost in the coal industry. David Guy, President of the Durham Miners Association comes to the microphone and introduces the days speakers beginning with the Right Worshipful Mayor of Durham City, Councillor George Wharton. He is followed by Alan Simpson Labour MP for Nottingham South, journalist and political writer John Pilger, the General Secretary of UNISON Rodney Bickerstaffe, civil rights activist Inez McCormack and Tony Benn MP for Bristol Southeast and Chesterfield. As each of the speakers speak the film intercuts views of the crowd watching and relevant archival images. As Tony Benn walks away from the microphone the crowd applauds. Dave Guy returns and introduce Dave Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners to move a vote of thanks. With the speeches over some of the banners begin to leave the racecourse making their way to Durham Cathedral for a special service of commemoration. Again, brass and banners make their way through the city towards and around Palace Green led by the Broughtons Brass Band who lead the procession through the Great Door and into the cathedral. Inside Ferryhill Parish Church a new banner for the Mainsforth, Dean & Chapter Colliery is brought in and placed near the alters for a rededication service led by Professor S.W. Sykes, Assistant Bishop Diocese of Durham. Back in Durham City as part of the gala the band for Elemore Colliery perform beside their temporary banner; writing along the bottom reads ‘Banner Under Restoration.’. A view of the speaker’s platform on Durham Racecourse and the voice of the Mayor of Durham City Margaret Adair speaking at the 1999 gala with regards the banner restoration project. A pair of hands flicks through a magazine to an article entitled ‘Save Our Banners – appeal launched’ and photographs of Councillor Adair parading through Durham beside the restored banner for Brandon Lodge during the 2000 gala. In July 1999 the Mayor of Sunderland, Councillor Ross Wares, speaks at a launch event to raise funds for the restoration of The New Herrington Banner Project changing to the restored banner being paraded past the County Hotel a year later in 2000 gala. In his workshop in Norfolk artist John Midgeley is at work restoring the banner for Handon Hold Lodge, he stopes and explains to the camera the work his is doing. At Redhills in Durham Hilary St John carefully unfurls one of the original 19th century banners stored there, it is in poor condition. Back in his studio John Midgeley talks about reproducing those banners which can’t be restored, beside him the new banner for Fishburn Lodge. He begins to talk about banner-maker George Tuthill intercut with archive stills of men and women at work in his studio as well as some of the banners produced. More archival photographs of banners being paraded, this time with black craped drapery to denote a fatality at the pit changes to a photo-memorial for the Glebe Colliery disasters from 1908. Hilary St John walks and looks over the new memorial commemorating the West Stanley Colliery disaster from 1909. A series of archive images and newspaper clips follow relating to these and other disaster as well as some of the rescue workers. The Houghton Rescue Station at Houghton-le-Spring, inside a rescue worker getting into a Land Rover turning on the siren. The Easington Lodge banner being paraded through Durham as part of the gala changes to more archival images of the colliery around the times of the disaster in 1951 which claimed the lives of 81 men, their names appearing on screen. Hilary St John walks along Memorial Avenue past a line of trees planted in memory of those killed towards a memorial to the men. More archive images of rescue workers changes to that of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade banner also being paraded on gala day. Wearing rescue overalls and helmet Hilary St John and standing beside a Mines Rescue Service vehicle. The current four-man rescue team at Houghton stand proudly beside their banner. A large mural on the side of a redundant colliery building beside a busy road. Inside members of the Broughtons (NUM) Band are rehearsing ‘I Got Rhythm’ by George Gershwin. Junior members of the band parade through Durham on gala day, back in their rehearsal space they practice their brass instruments watching the conductor who is teaching them. At the end of the commemoration service inside Durham Cathedral the junior members join the adults as they march out of the Great Door in front of their banner. Inside the Lumley Sports and Social Club both old and young members of the Houghton-le-Spring Pipe Band practice their pipes and drums. Inside the Newbottle Workmen’s Social Club Ltd also in Houghton-le-Spring older men order drinks at the bar and either play games of dominos and chess or sit around chatting. Exterior views of the Federation Brewery and Federation beer taps on a bar area. In their traditional kilts the Houghton-le-Spring Pipe Band parade through Durham on gala day before performing under the balcony of the County Hotel. As they march onto the racecourse the large watching crowds applaud. Over archive images of banners being paraded, the voice of David Guy speaking at the 1999 gala about 128 years of tradition. General view of the crowds at Durham Racecourse during the 1999 gala changes to the Horden Brass Band performing ‘New York New York’ beneath the balcony of the County Hotel the same year. The film ends on miners from across Yorkshire and Durham parade proudly through Durham intercut with miners in Ashington parading as part of the Northumberland Miners Millennium Picnic. Title: Brass and Banners Credit: Presented and Researched by Hilary St John Written by John Mason and Hilary St John Title: The Producers would like to thank the Durham Miners Association, Ian Lavery and Northumberland NUM, the Durham Aged Miners Homes Association, George Robson and the staff at Redhills Villas, John and Maggie Midgeley, Adam Allan and the members of the Mines Rescue Service – Houghton, St John’s Ambulance Brigade, The North of England Open Air Museum Archive – Beamish, Woodhorn Colliery Museum – Ashington, Durham Counties Library Service, Durham Cities Libraries, Ferryhill Town Council. Barry Holden, Dick Quin and Broughton’s Band, Kevin Reilly and Houghton Pipe Band, Dave Temple of Bands and Banners magazine, Brass Bands and mining communities throughout the northeast coalfields Credit: Camera and Sound Ross Greenwell, Karen Nunn, Tony Cartridge, Nick Harris, Hilary St John, John Mason Stills Emmie Smith Vision Control and Editing John Mason Producers Hilary St John and John K. Mason Directed by John K. Mason Title: Produced at Rainton Studio and on locations throughout the North East of England and Norfolk End title: A Puddle Production © MM Following the main feature two advertisements for other Puddle Productions ‘The Speeches’ and ‘Share the Experiences of Life’ by Tina Rooney.