From the Durham County Advertiser 50 years ago. – (From Durham Times)

From the Durham County Advertiser 50 years ago. –

8:48am Friday 20th July 2012 in Looking Back

From the Durham County Advertiser 50 years ago. –
That dearly-loved and oft-criticised spectacle, Durham Miners’ Gala, with its hundreds of thousands of people, bands and banners, platform speeches and Cathedral service, and swinging carnival street dances, will be seen for the 79th time in the city of Durham tomorrow.
From the early hours of the morning when lodge banners parade through the streets to the racecourse, until the end of the day, miners, their wives, families and friends will take advantage of the “freedom of the city”.
This great miners’ gathering, once described by an American newspaper as “the greatest show on earth”, and in another place as “the teddy boys picnic”, never fails to arouse the interest and attention of the rest of the country. Indeed, its fame is spreading overseas.
The time-honoured custom of halting traffic on the outskirts of the city to enable families from the length and breadth of the county (and further afield) to mingle freely in the streets is again enforced.
Public houses will open at 10.30am at the start of what for licensees, waiters and waitresses is an extremely long and busy day finishing at 10.30pm.