‘To me the Gala is the most joyous and emotional day it’s possible to have. I was taken to my first Gala when I was eight years old and I marched behind the band and the banner of Fishburn Colliery with my mother and Great-Uncle Wilf and Aunt Lizzie. It was always a wonderful day out, with three great emotional moments in it. First, there was the pride you felt at marching behind the lodge banner towards the racecourse, then there was the moment when we stopped outside the County Hotel and the band played their serenade to the big shots on the balcony, and finally there was the parade to the cathedral for the miners’ service.’This description of the Miners’ Gala, which always takes place on the 2nd Saturday in July, is by Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre, whose mother is from Durham. He lived in Durham as a child in the 1960s.

A Literary Pilgrimage of Durham is written by Ruth Robson and was commissioned as part of Durham Book Festival 2020