Sunday 21 July(1)

Durham Miners’ Gala - up to 100 brass bands with their union banners from former pit villages, an estimated 200,000 people in Durham for the day, speeches by trade union officials past and present, ending up with an impassioned address by Jeremy Corbyn - quite a day. I had some very interesting conversations with bystanders, all of whom, naturally, came from generations of mining families. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world but deemed it wise to get out of town in the early evening as things were likely to become quite lively later on.

It took about 4 hours for all the bands
to form up and process about
half a mile to the racecourse

One of the older bandsmen

I went past Kellingly several
times on JUDY
when it was still working

One of the younger players

The afternoon return march
was more like a sing-a-long

Nobody left even when
the rain came down

“ The Great 2019 Cafetière Disaster” on Monday entailed
immediate laundering of the big cushion cover and removing the coffee
grounds from seemingly every surface of the van.

“Northumbria” is a large landscaped figure of a naked lady created from mining waste from the neighbouring surface coal mine. I didn’t find it easy to make her out apart from her face and boobs.

Plan of “Northumbria”

Head nearest

Excavated trenches

Moving waste to backfill trenches

Spreading topsoil