by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A STRIKING display of almost 20,000 hand-crafted poppies will be unveiled in West Cornforth in honour of boys and men who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War. The project to create a commemorative installation of 19,240 has been just months in the...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A £50,000 project is being launched to explore the story of the only two brothers to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War and the village in which they live. Groundwork North-East and Cumbria and Durham County Council will use the funding to get the...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A VICTORIA CROSS winner is to be permanently commemorated as part of a day of events in the County Durham village of Witton Park, where he was born. The youngest general in British Army history, Roland Boys Bradford and his Navy officer brother George were the only...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Latest
AT 3.15pm exactly 100 years ago this afternoon, two battalions of the Durham Light Infantry rose up out of their trenches to attack enemy lines, led by Lt Col Roland Bradford. They had been engaged in the heaviest fighting on the Somme since September 15, practically...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
ON the day the nation remembers our brave fallen, it has emerged two North-East towns suffered greater losses than most. Almost eight per cent of Durham City’s population was killed fighting abroad in the First World War – the highest figure in the UK,...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
MORE than 50 memorials commemorating fallen soldiers across the region have been listed to mark the centenary of the First World War. As the country falls silent today (November 11) to honour Armistice Day and reflect on those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, war...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
WE are unlikely to ever see again the dedication to duty and bravery of the North-East brothers nicknamed The Fighting Bradfords, says playwright Carina Rodney about putting the story of the four First World War heroes on stage. The production about the medal-winning...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
AN old photograph kept in a biscuit tin has reunited a family. Margaret Eason took the old snapshot of her great uncle Arthur Corner to an open day at Durham County Record Office, which was collecting material for its Lottery-funded Durham At War project. All she knew...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
THE village of Evenwood was on tenterhooks 100 years ago. The whole country had been waiting for nearly two years for the Royal Navy – the pride of the nation – to join the war, and on May 31, 1916, at last it did. It was the largest naval battle in history: 100,000...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, In Your Town, Latest, People
BISHOP Auckland had never seen anything like it. The unpolished oak coffin, wrapped in a Union flag, led a procession more than a mile long through the streets to the cemetery. There were so many wreaths and floral tributes that they couldn’t all fit in the funeral...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
PUPILS have shed light on all aspects of the First World War as they mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the conflict. St John’s RC School and Sixth Form College, in Bishop Auckland, has used nearly all subjects on the curriculum to learn about aspects of the...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A POEM written in tribute to war horses by a First World War soldier has been passed down through generations of a North-East family. An Appeal for the Horses was penned by Lance Corporal Francis Hedley, of the 7th Yorkshire Regiment, while stationed in France during...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
AN historian has written a new book about the search for his uncle’s grave after he was killed in the Second World War. Lance Corporal John Thomas Saunders, of Bishop Auckland, died at a German prisoner of war camp at Lamsdorf, which is now in Poland. His nephew,...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, In Your Town, Latest, People
AT 12.35pm on Monday, March 1, 1915, a train departed from Grimsby station carrying new recruits to join the army. Undoubtedly, tearful wives and girlfriends waved hankies at the train until it disappeared into the distance, taking away the men they knew might never...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Crook, In Your Town, Latest
HISTORIANS have launched a two year project to research all their fellow villagers who died during the First World War. Howden-le-Wear History Society has received £8,000 from the National Lottery to create a book about the 30 men named on the village’s war memorial....
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Harrogate, In Your Town, Latest, Newcastle
AS the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War looms, the extraordinary courage of a true hero of the conflict has been immortalised in bronze. Former professional footballer Donald Bell was awarded the Victoria Cross for his exploits at the Battle of the...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Catterick, In Your Town, Latest, Spennymoor
THIS is a story of two stone soldiers who once stood proudly in the centres of their communities, keeping alive the memory of the real soldiers who had perished on the battlefield. Laurence Binyon’s famous poem, For the Fallen, says: “They shall grow not old, as we...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Latest, People
A book by a former Aycliffe headteacher tells the story of the Fighting Bradfords, four brothers who fought for their country in the First World War. The “Fighting Bradfords” were truly extraordinary: four brothers who between them during the First World War won two...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, People, VC Recipients
To commemorate St George’s Day, Chris Lloyd tells of a George who was born on that day and who fell on that day, giving his life for his country. EARLY in 1918, the Royal Navy requested volunteers from within its ranks for an extremely dangerous mission....
