Three leading community figures have taken up rarely offered invitations to join the ranks of the Durham City Freemen - providing them the opportunity to initially support the organisation and then offer themselves for election to undertake key leadership roles.
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An award-winning charity leader, expanding a service offering practical support to cancer sufferers and bereaved families, has been given a helping hand by Durham City’s Freemen. Mark Solan, who four years ago launched the Solan, Connor, Fawcett Trust after cancer claimed the lives of his mother and grandmother, operates from a headquarters in Spennymoor, a satellite boutique in Ferryhill and a pop up drop-in clinic in Sacriston.
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A specialist Durham centre, which has for more than 27 years played a key role in helping hundreds of people recover from mental illnesses, is hoping new computer technology will “transform” the work it delivers.
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Durham's freemen have responded to a charity’s “desperate” plea for help to reinforce the success of a ground breaking project launched to reach people of all ages.
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A Christmas gift from Durham’s Freemen, to a specialist respite care centre on the city’s northern outskirts, has proved to be particularly “well timed”.
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Mark and Rachel Vest’s decision to honour their father’s memory, by following him into the Drapers’ Company nearly 20 years after his death, has created what is believed to be a modern-day milestone. When the duo swore their oath of allegiance at the Martinmas Guild Day (November 11th) they swelled the ranks of the Vest clan’s membership of the same company to all an all-time high of 13.
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Seventy-two-year-old John, the latest city craftsman to join the Plumbers’ Company, lives on the outskirts of Durham with his wife Ivy, and started his working life in 1963 working as an apprentice for Fred Dennison. He stayed for five years before moving on to work for other plumbing companies in Durham.
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Family folk-lore suggests two brothers’ links with Durham City’s Freemen may stretch back to the 14thcentury Battle of Neville’s Cross. But extensive research into the lineage of James Watson-Lee and younger brother Alex, has only found firm evidence that takes them back to the 1680s.
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The Durham Pointers, recognised by their distinctive pink tabards, can be seen on the city’s streets every day, in all weathers, offering a warm welcome and directions to the tens of thousands of visitors from across the world who arrive annually between Easter and October.
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Children from St Margaret's Primary School celebrate the Centenary of a Special Durham Lady, Helena Rosa Duncombe Shafto, OBE at the Town Hall.
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