28/03/2025
Time for tea and reflection in a peaceful woodland glade
AMBITIOUS charity workers have transformed an overgrown woodland into a haven of peace and tranquility - which includes a public tea room in the trees – thanks to a second injection of cash from Durham City’s Freemen.
Staff at Lionmouth Rural Centre started work on their £10,000 woodland project, adjacent to their Broadgate Farm site, located between Esh Winning and Ushaw Moor, last spring.
The freemen’s charitable trustees initially pledged £1,000 towards the woodland development but last autumn promised a further £3,000 to help underwrite costs of the wooden tea room, destined to meet fresh public demand at the centre’s thriving plant nursery.
More that two dozen local people aged from their teens to mid-60s - some struggling to cope with social or learning difficulties, others suffering or recovering from mental health issues - attend the centre. They are supported by two full-time and three part-time staff, backed by a team of 16 volunteers.
The attendees are offered day care support and training in woodwork, horticultural, art, pottery, cookery and conservation.
A once overgrown plot at the centre containing trees and shrubs - some of them rare - are now embraced within the new managed woodland venture. The development work, tackled by staff and clients, offers public access along a featured pathway now lined by scented plants and shrubs and leading into an open glade with seating, benches which enojoy a view of the nearby River Deerness.
The addition of a tea room was dovetailed into the project to meet “consistent and continuing demand” from visitors dropping into the nursery.
Centre manager Brigid Press explained: “We had a thriving tea room before Covid but were forced us to close it down. We then had to utilize that area to provide chairs, desks and sufficient space for clients to allow us to re-open. Now clients have been reluctant to give up their own little pieces of territory and the change happily works better by allowing us to take on more clients.”
She admits the new wood-built tea room in the trees – with its own power supply - will be a scaled down version of the original. But it will have additional seating, as well as a gazebo providing shelter.
Although operating with an element of self-service the tea room will be staffed by some of the day-care users who will cook and bake the produce they will be serving.
“Those involved will be playing a larger public-facing role than they have in the past and will be trained and certified in food safety before starting,” added Brigid.
Eric Bulmer, chairman of the freemen’s trustees, said: “Once again the Lionmouth staff, supported by its many volunteers, have demonstrated their enthusiasm and dedication to continue developing the site for the benefit of its vulnerable clients, local community and visitors.”
28/03/2025
Blood Bike Couriers Gifted an Infusion of Cash
A DEDICATED band of life-saving motor bike couriers, spearheading a vital out-of-hours service delivering vital blood and medical supplies to the region’s hospitals, healthcare sites and the Great North Air Ambulance, have themselves received an important gift – a donation of £1,000.
The cash, from Durham City’s Freemen, will help meet the running costs of the Northumbrian Blood Bikes regional fleet of a dozen bikes and eight cars which burn up more than £7,500 worth of fuel annually and face a £26,000 insurance bill.
One of the bikers most frequently used team is based just a few hundred yards from the University of Durham Hospital, with its unpaid riders and drivers drawn from surrounding villages.
One member of the driving team is Steven Laws, who lives in the city and became a freeman after completing a craft apprenticeship at the Harrison’s organ factory more than 30 years ago. He went on to work as an instructor at Frankland Prison before joining the support staff at New College.
His own money-raising exploits for the charity over the past six years have included taking part in four annual Benidorm-or-Bust rallies from Dover to the popular Spanish resort with his son Sam.
The near 1,200-mile one-way fun-run in a convoy of old bangers takes up to five days to reach their destination. The event attracts scores of drivers from across the country, each committed to raising funds for their nominated good causes. The Durham father-and-son’s four Iberian adventures, paid for entirely from their own pockets, have alone raised nearly £12,000 for the Blood Bikes.
Over the last decade the Durham-based biking/driving teams completed nearly 5,000 regional out-of-hours runs, including daily deliveries to the air ambulance.
Their region-wide free service operates round-the-clock at weekends and twelve hours between 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. each weekday. They receive no Government funding, rely entirely on charitable and public donations and save the regional health service up to £400,000 annually.
Kirsty Lawrence, a trustee of the bikers’ charity, said: “We don’t charge for the service we provide, not least so the money the NHS saves in transportation costs can be put back into the front-line care of patients. We rarely find out who we have helped but one day we might be the ride of your life.”
The chairman of the freemen’s charitable trust, Eric Bulmer, said: “Once again a group of volunteers, whose work goes unseen and often unacknowledged, provide a vital service for our local community. We are delighted to help give the tangible support they so surely deserve.”
27/03/2025
Freemen’s “Fantastic” Tonic For City Hospice
A Crisis-hit hospice, forced into make a string of staffing cuts in the wake of the Chancellor’s autumn budget, has been given a major boost by Durham City Freemen.
In January St Cuthbert’s Hospice, with a 124-strong workforce, axed 18 jobs in the wake of the rise in National Insurance contributions alongside other inflation- linked support.
Since opening in 1988 the hospice has been offering free 24-hour pain management and end of life care, as well as dementia and bereavement support to a total of 1,000 people annually. But managers now warn the enforced economies may result in up to 150 people missing out on day care services, with 100 more losing access to bereavement support.
Announcing the immediate decision by the freemen’s charitable trust to gift £15,000, trust chairman, Eric Bulmer said: “We have long been aware of the vital service delivered by the dedicated staff and volunteers at the hospice and have made significant contributions over the years. We felt duty bound to act in the present crisis.”
The hospice’s annual running costs have latterly topped more than £3.5 million, covering all services, particularly specialist medical and nursing care. The support from commissioning organizations, including the NHS, have been meeting less than half of the yearly bill.
Patricia Boynton, the hospice’s trusts and grant manager, offered a “massive thank you” to all the freemen for the donation.
She added: “When I heard the fantastic news I couldn’t wait to tell everyone at the hospice. We continue to rely on charitable funding and this gift means so much. We have always believed what we offer should be accessible to all.”
Eric also explained the freemen’s decision was particularly poignant, following the “wonderful care” received by Alan Ribchester at the hospice in the final days before his death at the end of January.
Alan, a leading chartered accountant in the region, had been the instigator and driving force behind the establishment of the freemen’s charitable trust.
27/02/2025
Mayor's Charity Appeal Gets Major Boost
TWO charities supported by Durham’ Mayor, County Councillor Liz Brown, during her year of office will share a £1,000 gift from the freemen.
The two recipients, Feeding Families and the animal rescue service Stray Aid, both operate within the county’s boundaries.
Thousands of families across the region facing “food poverty” have benefitted from deliveries from the charity’s distribution centre in Blaydon. Two thousand food boxes are sent out every month and during the last year more than160,000 meals have reached families on the breadline.
From its County Durham base Stray Aid dedicates support and protection to abandoned dogs and homeless cats.
On her appointment the city-born mayor said she was honoured and excited to be given the opportunity to represent the communities and organisations which “make this wonderful; city what it is.”
She said: “My chosen charities are really important to me. At a time of higher living costs helping struggling families facing poverty is vital, as too is sheltering abandoned animals.”
Coun. Mrs Brown, the representative for Neville’s Cross for seven years, is married for with four children. She has followed a varied career, embracing garden design, cleaning houses and working for the BBC.
20/01/2025
Butchers look to save their ancient craft skills
NEWLY apprenticed butcher Rachael Lister looks set to be a cut above the rest at the start of her chosen career - thanks to an award from Durham Freemen’s Charitable Trustees to help meet the cost of the tools she will need.
And the 22-year-old’s benefactors – whose own links to the meat trade stretch back more than 500 years - hope the move will help preserve some of the centuries-old skills which are threatened by progress.
Rachael, from Stanley, was working in the café at Broom House Farm near Witton Gilbert when she was offered a switch to their on-site nationally acclaimed shop and butchery - last year voted the best in the country.
During the last 12 months “her potential and enthusiasm” was recognized by the craftsmen in the shop and she accepted the offer to take up an apprenticeship.
Scrutiny of her on-the-job training will be monitored until 2026 by the industry specialists Meat Ipswich until 2026 through a series of assessments. Her supervising mentor at Broom House will be one of the shop’s own time-served butchers, Vincent Syson. As well as being a Durham City Freeman Vincent is also deputy warden of their Butchers’ Company, which welcomed the 500th anniversary of the granting of its charter in 2020.
Rachael will use her £400 award from the freemen to buy a set of knives, sharpening steel and chain mail apron and glove.
“We are tremendously proud of our award-winning status and the home reared lamb, pork, beef and mutton which we sell through the shop. We are also committed to making sure our craft is preserved and ensuring our farm-to-fork skills are passed on to future generations,” said Vincent.
“We work with whole carcasses of meat reared on this farm, which come to us in their entirety. It’s something of dying art but provides customers with a better quality and wider of choice of cuts of meat. The alternative, known as ‘boxed beef,’ is a cost-cutting convenience adopted by many butchers – a practice which involves animals being cutting up at slaughterhouses before being sent out ready to be put on display,” he added.
Eric Bulmer, chairman of the charitable trustees, said: “I am delighted the trust is able to support Rachael on her journey towards developing skills in a craft which has historic connections with the city and we wish her every success.”
