Author: John Proud
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 […]
Courtesy of the Daily Telegraphy SIR PAUL NICHOLSON, who has died aged 86, was the last family chairman of the Sunderland-based Vaux brewery until its demise at the hands of City investors; a leading figure in north-eastern business and civic life, he was also Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham. Vaux (pronounced “vorks”) quenched the thirst of […]
Alan Ribchester, who was 79, lived all his life in Durham and was married to Gina. The couple have two sons, Richard and Robert, and four grandchildren. Until his retirement Alan headed a chartered accountancy practice now based on Belmont Business Park and employing four partners, one of them son Robert, along with a staff […]
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 […]
Bob Elliott has joined the freemen’s celebrated “band of brothers” by reaching a 60-year membership milestone – adding to the already notable claims of two of his grandchildren. At the February Guild Day Garry Dunnill, chairman of the wardens, marked the occasion by presenting Bob with a special freemen’s plaque and paying tribute to the […]
THREE foodbanks, which have provided emergency grocery parcels to hundreds of crisis-hit families in the Durham area over the past year, have been gifted £1,000 by the charitable trust of the city’s freemen. The three hubs, operating premises in Waddington Street, Old Elvet and Gilesgate are part of a network of 27 distribution points across […]
A FAMILY, whose modern-day footprint on the freemen’s seven centuries of history is near impossible to match, established a generational “quadruple” first at this year’s November Guild Day. Joiners’ Company warden Ann Thurlow, accompanied by her 43-year-old son David, were among the first to congratulate her grandson, Robert Caulkin-Neale, when he completed the “treble” after […]
REMEMBRANCE Sunday in Durham will be marked again by a double tribute to “The Fallen” – both supported together for the first time by the Durham City Freemen Charitable Trust. The traditional Sunday morning parade through the city, which follows a service in the cathedral, is one of the biggest in the region. It will […]
A grassroots arts festival, preparing to stage its fourth annual event in Durham City this summer (July 24th-28th), has been handed a cash boost to help extend marketing and promotional activities ahead of the event. Helping Performing Arts Festival To Grow Will Be “Just The Ticket” A £500 gift from the city’s freemen will in particular […]
A striking granite and limestone memorial, designed to offer a focal point of remembrance for parents of dozens of babies who died before, during or immediately after birth in a Durham Hospital, will be unveiled in a city churchyard in mid April. The ambitious £100,000 project – incorporating the unique memorial, flanked by limestone benches […]