Durham is not only the city of the aristocratic Prince Bishops and the learned gentlefolk of the University. It is - or rather, it was, until the coal ran out - also the focal point for the miners who worked the Durham coalfield, and their families. The work was hard and dangerous, but there was an annual day out to look forward to, organised by the Miners' Union: the Miners' Gala or Big Meeting.

The first Gala was held in Wharton Park, but it soon moved to the riverside setting of the Racecourse. People travelled in to the outskirts of the city from the surrounding pit villages, and each pit gathered around its own banner and marched through the streets behind its brass (or silver) band. It took hours for everyone to reach the Racecourse, with each band stopping to play for the guests and invited speakers on the balcony of the Royal County Hotel. The streets were packed, and shop windows were boarded up - not for fear of violence, but because the glass was at risk from the sheer crush of bodies. Then there would be speeches from trades union leaders, and Labour politicians, after which some of the banners process back across the river to the cathedral. Or, if you preferred other entertainments, there was a funfair. And the pubs would stay open all day - back when this was something exceptional, which required a special licence.

It's still worth visiting Durham on the second Saturday in July, to see the banners and hear the bands, to go to the funfair and generally join in the party, but the pits have closed, the heart has gone out of the Labour movement and the Gala is a mere shadow of its former self.