A GREAT grandmother, believed to be the oldest woman freeman in Britain, has died peacefully just days short of her of her 104th birthday. But her trip was brought about by pure chance – the result of a north east ancestry search carried out by her son Ian, a Durham University graduate. During the trawl […]
SENIOR members of Durham City Freemen will this year take part, for the first time, in a country-wide event celebrating England’s “fantastic heritage and culture.” Wardens and deputy wardens, from the freemen’s eight surviving craft guilds formed at the end of the Middle Ages, will be available across four days in mid-September will meet members […]
THE world of high finance and artistic exercise, performed within a loop suspended from a ceiling, are unlikely bedfellows. But they both feature in the life of insurance specialist Daryl Metcalf – the freemen’s latest new recruit, where she joins dad Alan in the Cordwainers’ Guild Thirty-one-year-old Daryl, born in Esh Winning and educated at […]
Photographer Geoff Kitson had to be quick on his feet to capture a unique three-generational family picture when his grandson Tom was sworn in as a Durham City Freemen. Getting Tom, wife Sheila, son Leighton, daughter Alison, son-in-law Adam and brother Steve, as well as himself into the frame, posed few problems for a man […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A PRIMARY schoolteacher, whose great-great-grandfather crafted the coffin in which St Cuthbert’s remains were re-buried in Durham Cathedral in 1899, has followed her forebears into the ranks of the city’s freemen. Mother-of-two Charlotte Middleton was sworn-in during an ancient Town Hall ceremony alongside Patrick Conway OBE, a retired local government director whose own career included […]
YOUNG house-building carpenter Liam Thynne, singled out for his “exceptional skills,” has been declared overall winner of a pioneering annual awards scheme showcasing the achievements of modern-day craft apprentices. The project, launched 12 months ago by Durham City’s Freemen, and supported by New College, Durham, this year considered 25 new hopefuls in eight trade categories, […]