Greenside Miners' Lodge Banner and Banner Festival

The Greenside Miners' Lodge banner, restored by the village heritage group Banner Tales, is marched through Greenside each year at the Greenside Banner Festival, begun in 2016 as the Last Shift Festival, before it joins the other banners at the Durham Miners' Gala.

The mining history in this record

Greenside, in the far west of Gateshead, grew up on coal. Its colliery, first sunk in 1795-96, became the largest in the district, and it closed in July 1966, the last shift being worked on Saturday 23 July. The Greenside miners' lodge had its banner, and a photograph from the 1960s shows it being paraded through the village.

Banner Tales, a group formed to keep the social and mining heritage of West Gateshead, took the banner as its focus: its motto is that every banner tells a tale. It restored and displayed the Greenside pit banner and revived the custom of carrying it to the Durham Miners' Gala, alongside work in local schools, a video, 'Greenside', and the gathering of local people's memories of the pit. By its own account the old banner was in such poor repair that it would not survive another outing, and the group set out to commission a new one and to build a local history exhibition around the old.

People

Banner Tales, the Greenside heritage group that restored the lodge banner, revived its march to the Durham Miners' Gala, runs the festival and dedicated the village's memorial coal tub.

Legacy today

In 2016, fifty years after the last shift, Banner Tales held the first Last Shift Festival. It has become an annual event under the name Greenside Banner Festival: each year the lodge banner is marched through the village with a brass band before it joins the other banners at the Gala in Durham. The group also holds a yearly Greenside Community Picnic in the spirit of the miners' picnics of the past.

A coal tub on rails stands on a green in the village, dedicated by Banner Tales to the memory of all who worked at Greenside Pit and their families.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Greenside Colliery closed in July 1966, the last shift being worked on Saturday 23 July. (documented fact) ¹
• The Greenside lodge banner was paraded through the village in the 1960s, while the colliery was still working. (documented fact) ²
• Banner Tales restored and displayed the Greenside pit banner and revived the tradition of taking it to the Durham Miners' Gala. (documented fact) ²
• Banner Tales instituted the Last Shift Festival in 2016; as the Greenside Banner Festival it is held every year, the lodge banner marched through the village with a brass band before joining the banners at the Durham Miners' Gala. (documented fact) ¹
• A memorial coal tub in Greenside, dedicated by Banner Tales, commemorates all who worked at Greenside Pit and their families. (documented fact) ³

Mines

• Greenside Colliery — Tyne and Wear
  The banner is the Greenside Miners' Lodge's, and the festival began in 2016 to mark the colliery's last shift of 23 July 1966.

Real-world mining concepts used here

Coal, Colliery, Tub

Sources

1. (secondary) Greenside, Tyne and Wear — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Banner Tales Heritage Education Project — Community Archives and Heritage Group
3. (observational) Geograph 5132922: Coal tub, Greenside — Geograph

Record created: 9 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026