Children’s Banner, 2006

Children at Bowburn Junior School helped with ideas for the design of the Centenary Banner. They were so enthusiastic that the Banner Group decided to seek further funding, this time from Awards for All, so that they could have their own banner.

One side shows Bowburn and Park Hill in relation to the rest of the world and universe, with features of life today.

In the years following the production of this banner, it was realised that the words “Bowburn Junior School” seemed to limit those who could carry and march with it might have to be still (or already) at that school. So, in 2012, it was decided to alter the wording on this side of the banner to “The Children’s Banner”, making it clear that it is the banner of all children and young people in the village.

The other side of the Children’s Banner shows life above and below ground in a colliery village, with the logo “Care for the future; remember the past”.

Schoolchildren worked with members of the Bearpark Artists Co-operative to produce the detailed designs for the Children’s Banner and even helped with some of the painting.

It was marched into Durham Big Meeting with the Centenary Banner in 2006 – as it has every year since then.

The banner was at first kept at Bowburn Junior School and one side carried the title “Bowburn Junior School”.  In 2012, this was changed to “The Children’s Banner” and it is now kept in Bowburn Community Centre. Children of all ages, from throughout the village, can now carry and march with the banner. Between 2013 and 2018, both Bowburn Junior School and Bowburn Infant School paraded the banner at Beamish Open Air Museum, during its “Old King Coal” weeks.