Community Activity

VOLUNTEERS operating a prostate cancer support group have launched its own independent screening service for men in County Durham over the age of 45.

The multi-million-pound rescue of Durham’s Miners’ Hall, to be formally unveiled to the public later this year – will be fronted by a key feature funded by a £3,000 gift from the city’s freemen. The transformation, which has breathed new life into the dilapidated Redhills building in Flass Street, was launched nearly a decade ago […]

A LATE-night weekend refuge in the centre of Durham, offering a helping hand to anyone in distress, has been given a renewed boost by the city’s freemen. Last year they made a £1,000 donation to the Durham County Council-led Hub @ St Nic’s operating from St Nicholas’s Church in the Market Place – and have […]

An urgent public appeal for volunteer car drivers has been launched by the County Durham-based ambulance charity, Supportive, to help people of all ages – including children – reach both vital and routine health-related appointments and social activities. The charity, based in Ferryhill, operates a two dozen-strong fleet of crewed ambulances and ambulance cars, committed […]

A long-established community hub on the outskirts of Durham, facing rising costs and the threat of losing out to advancing technology, has been provided with a low-tech solution to high-tech problem by the city’s Freemen.  Part of the core business of the Framwellgate Moor Community Centre, a charity launched in the late 1960s, provides “wellbeing” […]

A LIVELY summer afternoon tea party in the former Durham pit village of Waterhouses has proved yet another hit with local residents. The launch of this latest event complements a range of popular activities which earned the community association a commendation from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations. The party, […]

DURHAM-based members of the region’s only pro-active prostate cancer support and promotion group are taking their message on tour – thanks to the financial backing of the city’s freemen. The work of four dozen members of the group, who have all undergone prostate treatment, had been restricted to regular meetings at the Brawn’s Den public […]

ORGANISERS of a successful performing arts festival, planning their fifth successive annual event in Durham City, are focusing attention on children and young people in the surrounding communities to help build on dramatic rises in audience numbers. Last summer the five-day Durham Fringe Festival sold 7,500 tickets – an increase of forty per cent – […]

A ONCE thriving mining community on the outskirts of Durham, born in the early 19th century and disappearing 150 years later, is being permanently remembered in a heritage project supported by a local community group, the city’s freemen and the county council. The seeds of the village of Middle Rainton are reported to have been […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

SANDSTONE tablet of King Charles’s official cipher, hand-crafted by a Durham Cathedral mason, has gone on display in a village hall – alongside an official letter of commendation from his mother, the Queen, awarded as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations Her Majesty’s personally signed letter to the independently-run Waterhouses Community Association, acknowledged the value […]

AN independently-run mental health charity, stretched by “a huge increase” in demand for its services, has been thrown a financial life-line by Durham City Freemen. When the Waddington Street Centre celebrated its 40th anniversary three years ago it provided a front-line safe haven every week for 120 members, all struggling with the crippling stress of modern […]

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 […]

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 […]

ACENTURIES-old craft, which first emerged in England during the Middle Ages and went on to be nurtured for over two hundred years in the homes of Durham’s coal and lead mining families, is poised to receive a double boost from the city’s freemen. A 20-strong women’s voluntary self-help group, whose ages range from 40-plus to […]

STROKE victims from across Durham will enjoy “an enhanced quality of life” thanks to the continuing support of the city’s freemen. The 30 members of the County Durham Stroke Club have meet twice monthly at Framwellgate Moor’s Bede Lodge Social Club since 2011 and in the last five years have enjoyed the financial backing of […]

YOUNG boxing gold medalists from Durham have earned themselves a special award from the city’s freemen – a £1,000 gift to help equip an extension to their purpose-built gym. Formed over a decade ago the Brandon Boxing Club has enjoyed regular success in regional, national and international competitions. But last season they excelled on a […]

A SMALL band of guardians, offering anyone in distress a safe night-time refuge within a central Durham church, have been handed a timely boost by the city’s freemen. Their £1,000 gift will support the vital work of the five-strong team operating a funding-dependent Safe Hub within St Nicholas’s Church in the Market Place – providing […]

More than 800 primary school children within Durham City are set to benefit from a national internet safety scheme aimed at making their switch from primary to secondary education less emotionally stressfull Backed by a £1,000 gift from the city’s freemen, Amber Bee CIC, a national community interest company will, from this September, begin delivering […]

Officials of a community hub, who faced being shut out of their own premises by the pending failure of hydraulic entrance doors, have been handed the key to the crisis by Durham City’s Freemen. The Key To Problem Doors – An Open And Shut Case Coxhoe Village Hall, built in two stages in the 1930s […]

TROUBLED youngsters, stepping out on an award winning and unorthodox “pathway” to a brighter future, have been given a £1,000 “purse” to help them on their journey. Operating outside a traditional school environment, Go The Distance (GTD), a community interest company based on the Belmont Business Park, uses a carefully structured “four pillar” mix of […]

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 […]

An award-winning cancer charity, struggling to match funding against soaring demand for its free day-to-day help, has been given a “fantastic” boost by Durham City’s Freemen Against Rising Costs And Soaring Demand, Cancer Charity Forced To Re-Think The freemen’s £2,000 gift will be used to streamline bespoke services delivered to hundreds of patients and bereaved families […]

A charity, committed to bringing joy into the lives of children, teenagers and young adults with learning difficulties, has extra reason to be happy. YOUNGSTERS HAVE DURHAM’S TOURIST TREASURES IN THEIR SIGHTS The Cheesy Waffles Project, based in Belmont Community Centre, has been handed a £1,000 gift by the freemen towards costs of their latest adventure […]

A team of seamstresses, whose combined skills have provided physical “comfort” to 1,000 women recovering from breast cancer surgery, has been handed a timely boost by the city’s freemen. Sewing Skills Cushion The Pain Of Cancer Recovery Since 2014 the craftswomen, an 18-strong sub-group of the Tursdale and Hett Women’s Institute, “worked below the radar” to […]

Expansion of a specialist organisation providing free male to male peer to peer support for North East men struggling with mental health-related issues, has been handed a £500 boost by Durham City’s Freemen. Trust Backs Expansion Of Men’s Mental Health Support Groups ManHealth will use the gift to set up a new group in the Gilesgate […]

A group of Durham enthusiasts, whose mission launched more than forty years ago to promote and preserve centuries-old spinning, weaving and dyeing skills, has been handed a financial boost by the city’s freemen. Cash Windfall Helps Spinners Keep Weaving To Save Ancient Skills Often working with hand-held spindles to duplicate methods pioneered by long-lost civilisations, […]

A pioneering five-year project, launched to raise a wider public acceptance and understanding of the region’s Down’s syndrome community, draws to a close today (Sunday, March 12) with a celebrity book launch. FREEMEN-BACKED BOOK PROJECT LAUNCHED BY TV CRIME WRITER A pioneering five-year project, launched to raise a wider public acceptance and understanding of the region’s […]

Three unconnected organisations, supporting hundreds of stroke victims, people recovering from mental illness, along with cancer sufferers and bereaved families, are the latest charities to receive cash from a bumper festive fund distributed by Durham City Freemen’s Charitable Trust. Latest Trio Handed Share Of Freemen’s Christmas Gifts The trio, the County Durham Stroke Club, the city’s […]

Two charities, supporting vulnerable children and young adults in Durham, are the latest to benefit from a £6,000 festive pot of cash earmarked for a dozen organisations by the city’s freemen.    DOUBLE FESTIVE BOOST FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN TIN ArtsWhile TIN Arts offers inspiration to young people with learning disabilities, autism or additional needs, the Durham […]

The County Durham Foodbank – which provides emergency food parcels to thousands of local people in crisis – is the first of ten charities to benefit from a bumper festive hand-out of cash from Durham City’s Freemen. Festive Cash For A Dozen Charities Will Benefit Thousands Operated by Durham Christian Partnership from its central warehouse on […]

A specialist craftsman has stepped back in time, dusting down skills learned more than sixty years ago, to give a cash-strapped community charity a helping hand. ERIC SIGNS UP TO STEP UP BACK IN TIME Over the past six years Durham’s Freemen have gifted more than £7,000 to the LionMouth Rural Centre, a project based […]

A month- long programme of school-holiday breaks for young people from a string of former pit villages around Durham, was given a “massive boost” by the city’s freemen. From their centre in Brandon the Carrside Youth and Community Project embraces Meadowfield, Langley Moor, Ushaw Moor, Esh Winning and New Brancepeth, offering a year-round safe haven […]

Members of a top marching jazz band returned from a national competition in Wales with an extra spring in their step after winning no fewer than a dozen first prizes and five runners-up spots. And leading the charge was Elijah Stabler (pictured) who at just three years old was judged to be the best mini […]

Apprentices working for Durham University’s estates directorate have been handed the “key” to new computer and software equipment to support their training – thanks to the city’s freemen. CRAFT APPRENTICES “KEY IN” TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES Apprentices working for Durham University’s estates directorate have been handed the “key” to new computer and software equipment to support their […]

A community group is literally rolling out the carpet as it puts the finishing touches to the refurbishment of a special adult teaching unit. FREEMEN HELP WRITE NEW CHAPTER IN LITERACY COURSES FOR THE JOBLESS Durham Community Association, based in Shakespeare Hall, in Durham City’s North Road, is completing the face-lift thanks to a £600 gift […]

A specialist centre providing temporary 24-hour respite care to people with learning difficulties is benefiting a second time from the latest round of charitable awards from Durham City’s freemen “ALEXA” SPEAKS UP TO LIFT THE MOOD AT SPECIALIST RESPITE CARE CENTRE Over two years ago Hawthorn House, a county council-run complex at Newton Hall and staffed by […]

A plea for help from a storm-hit charity supporting local people with learning difficulties or recovering from mental health problems, has been answered by Durham City’s Freemen. HURRICANE TAKES THE WIND OUT OF CHARITY’S SAILS At the end of last year the LionMouth Rural Centre, a community project based at Broadgate Farm, near Esh Winning, was […]

A charity’s move to offer direct help to vulnerable homeless women, struggling with “complex and multiple needs,” has been underwritten by a gift from Durham’s freemen. Against a background of constant struggle to raise funds Durham Action on Single Housing (DASH) – a non-profitmaking organisation founded in 1972 – still pressed ahead with the project. […]

Durham’s freemen are backing the launch of a targeted aid programme designed to bring fresh hope to scores of disadvantaged children and young people on a city housing estate. The staff and management team of the Laurel Avenue Community Centre, established in 1985 and located on the Sherburn Road Estate, have identified many “stigmatised” children […]

A future of a vital communications link operated by a Durham-based charity for the blind has been guaranteed, thanks to the generosity of the city’s freemen. Blind Life in Durham, operating from Framwellgate Community Centre, provides a wide range of quality-of-life support to more than 70 members across the county. A key tool used in […]

People seeking help and support from an independently-run mental health resource centre near the centre of Durham will now be able to enjoy a welcome breath of fresh air – thanks to a gift from the city’s freemen. Every week the Waddington Street Centre, a respected charity celebrating its 40th anniversary this month (November), has provided […]

A vital donation from Durham City’s Freemen has again helped underwrite the costs of staging one of the North East’s biggest Remembrance Day parades. The spectacle – through the streets of the city on Sunday, November 14 – will feature more than 500 military personnel, among them representatives of the vast majority of the country’s […]

Durham’s Freemen are proving an even bigger hit with young boxing enthusiasts – by repeating a donation first made a year ago to buy key pieces of training kit. Last November a £300 gift from the freemen’s charitable trust helped Brandon Boxing Club cover costs of a new punch bag and gloves. This month the […]

A great-grandmother, who seven years ago was reported to be one the oldest people in Britain to be newly sworn-in as a freemen, is celebrating another milestone in her life – her 100th birthday. In the spring of 2014 Mrs Connie Hotchkiss was just four months short of her 93rd birthday when she was welcomed into […]

A medal-winning neighbourhood community champion has been installed as leader of Durham City’s Freemen. Seventy-four-year-old John Booth was unanimously elected chairmen of the wardens and now leads the freemen’s eight surviving trade guilds whose lineage is thought to stretch back to the early 14th century. A medal-winning neighbourhood community champion has been installed as leader […]

Hundreds of children with special needs are to be re-united at four huge fun-filled picnics organised by a leading County Durham charity to mark the end of their Covid isolation. Hundreds of children with special needs are to be re-united at four huge fun-filled picnics organised by a leading County Durham charity to mark the […]

A timely gift of £500 from Durham’s Freemen’s has been instrumental in helping the scouting movement hit a target set to meet the costs of major improvement work at a large outdoor adventure and training centre on the eastern outskirts of the city. FREEMEN’S CASH PLEDGE HELPS SCOUTS’ FUNDING APPEAL HIT TARGET A timely gift of […]

Volunteer police cadet Charland Brain was awarded “top marks” for helping a crime fighting charity’s mission to build safer communities. Teenager Cops Freemen’s Apprenticeship Backing Volunteer police cadet Charland Brain was awarded “top marks” for helping a crime fighting charity’s mission to build safer communities. And her work has now earned a special vote of […]

A Christmas gift from Durham’s freemen has helped secure the future of three volunteer-run foodbanks operating within the city’s boundaries. No fewer than 27 independently operated foodbanks across county are run by the Durham Christian Partnership. And, while grocery parcels offered to the needy are the product of the generosity of individual members of the […]

Boxers, crime-fighters and a village primary school’s mission to help families facing severe hardship, have all benefited from pre-festive gifts from Durham City Freemen’s Charitable Trust. Boxers, crime-fighters and a village primary school’s mission to help families facing severe hardship, have all benefited from pre-festive gifts from Durham City Freemen’s Charitable Trust. And their £300 […]

wo “masketeers,” among volunteers across the Durham area providing a range of vital community support to those among the hardest hit by the flu pandemic, are sharing a £1,100 shot-in-the-arm from the city’s freemen. Two “Masketeers,” among volunteers across the Durham area providing a range of vital community support to those among the hardest hit […]

A major project to site a string of life-saving medical equipment in busy thoroughfares across the north east, has been officially launched in Durham’s Market Place by the city’s M.P. Mary Kelly Foy. FREEMEN PLAY KEY ROLE IN LAUNCH OF LIFE-SAVING MEDICAL NETWORK At the start of this year three Rotary Clubs – Durham Bede, Durham […]

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Rotary Clubs of Durham received a £250 donation from the Freemen’s Charitable Trust, to support their initiative to make and deliver face masks to local Food Banks and vulnerable individuals within the community. The initiative is coordinated by Tom Sharples Community Chair of Durham Elvet Rotary, who with […]

Durham’s hospital bosses, campaigning to raise more than £2 million to tackle an overwhelming rise in demand for cancer treatment, have offered a thousand thanks to the city’s freemen for responding to their appeal. A total of 2020 businesses, organisations, groups and schools county-wide are being sought to make a £1,000 donation towards the cost […]

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 […]

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. The number of attendees at St Margaret’s Centre, a former school in the city’s Margery Lane, has more than doubled […]

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. Last spring Age UK County Durham, which supports a wide range of clubs, activities and services for older people and carers, launched a “community shed” in the yard […]

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”.  The £250 donation from the freemen’s charitable trust will cover the cost of a range of equipment and soft furnishings – and includes a number of large wall clocks which, as […]

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. Freemen’s Generosity Ensures City Volunteers “Stay In The Pink” The […]

A gift from Durham’s Freemen has answered the “dreams and wishes” of scores of disabled children and young people who are members of a county-wide organisation based in the city. A gift from Durham’s Freemen has answered the “dreams and wishes” of scores of disabled children and young people who are members of a county-wide […]

The Mayor of Durham, County Councillor John Lethbridge, has offered his heartfelt thanks to the city’s freemen for the boost to his annual charity appeal, which is destined this year to go to the Royal British Legion. Councillor Lethbridge, a retired teacher, was handed a £1,000 donation by the chairman of the wardens, Eric Bulmer, […]

A military spectacle mounted to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War – and backed by Durham’s Freemen – promises to be “the biggest parade seen in the city in living memory.” Hundreds of members of regular and reserve units of the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, along […]

Stroke victims are being kept “on the road to recovery”, thanks to a £1,000 gift from the City of Durham Freemen. The money, donated to the County Durham Stroke Club, will cover the year-long costs of a vital transport link for handicapped clients who would otherwise be stranded at home. The club, founded in 2011, […]

A dedicated group of volunteers, who point the way for tens of thousands of tourists who visit Durham each summer, have themselves been given a helping hand by the City’s Freemen. The work of the Durham Pointers, a sixty-strong group who provide directions and information to visitors, last year earned them a Queen’s Award for […]

A major donation from the City of Durham Freemen has enabled a groundbreaking community project to plan for the future – by stepping back in time. A £7,000 grant from the freemen has underpinned ambitious new developments at workshops run by the LionMouth Rural Centre, including the revival of the ancient woodland craft of bodging. […]

Durham’s oldest performing arts company, facing a fight for survival, has been thrown a financial lifeline by the city’s freemen. The award-winning Durham Musical Theatre Company, formed in 1908, is, staging a programme of glittering three-hour shows at the Gala Theatre in a bid to secure its future. An ambitious medley from “The best of […]