UK City of Culture 2025: County Durham’s Bid

Dehenna Davison Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2022 Westminster Hall

[Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland) (Con)]

Under instruction, I will keep my contribution as brief as I can.

Over the weekend, I had the immense pleasure of attending one of the cultural events of the year in Bishop Auckland, the Bishop Auckland Food Festival. The reason I am struggling a bit today is that my stomach is still full from Yorkshire pudding wraps and amazing sausage sandwiches and Scotch eggs—only a snippet of the incredible food culture we have in our county.

I have to go only slightly into the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell) to get to the incredible Raby Hunt Michelin-starred restaurant, which is not only nationally renowned but world renowned. I look forward to eventually being able to afford a meal there—it is a wonderful place and I cannot wait to go. At the other end of the scale, we have some incredible local cafés, such as Café Cheesedale in my constituency, which set up just before the pandemic and has had an incredible pandemic, offering a real outdoors escape for people to go and enjoy a meal with their family, see the pigs and the cows and enjoy some locally produced cheese.

It is not just food—we have some cracking breweries as well. In my constituency, we are fortunate to have McColl’s and the Barnard Castle Brewing Company. If people are not for beer but fancy gin later on—perhaps when we are here for late votes—they can always pick up some Durham gin, a wonderful tipple.

Of course, it is not just about food and drink, although that plays a vital part in all our lives, but about heritage. In County Durham, we are fortunate to have some really incredible heritage. My hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield and the hon. Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy) have already spoken about the Durham miners’ gala, which I hope to be able to attend this year for the very first time. That mining heritage shines right throughout our county. In my constituency, we have a mining museum that features some incredible art created by miners when they were sitting in the pits; we also have the wonderful Norman Cornish gallery in Spennymoor, where some of the incredible work of that absolute world legend can be seen. I encourage everyone to visit.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield said, heritage also comes in the form of military heritage. I am delighted to say that the joint administration in Durham is finally bringing back the long-awaited Durham Light Infantry Museum after years of campaigning by local residents.

We also have some brilliant built heritage. Escomb church has already been mentioned. It is a centuries-old Saxon church that is on the international radar. Again, I would encourage anyone to pay a visit. However, if people really want to learn about the history of County Durham and the prince bishops, they have to go to Bishop Auckland and Kynren. It tells an incredible, spectacular tale in the outdoors about the history of our county. Kynren by the Auckland Project really sums up the incredible cultural assets we have in our county.

For people into art, there is good news. Not only do we now have the new Spanish Gallery, a faith museum that is due to open very soon, and the incredible Bowes Museum, we have great community artists as well in the form of the Pineapple Gallery, House of Smudge, and some brilliant street artists who are revolutionising the street scene in Bishop Auckland. We know that some of our high streets are struggling, but why should we look at grotty, rusty shutters when we could have brilliant street artists going out and showing the best of what they can offer?

If people like music and fancy a boogie, I would recommend a trip down to The Witham in Barnard Castle. Last time I went there was for Bootleg Blondie, which was, I must say, one of the best gigs I have ever been to. During the election campaign, my campaign manager told me that I could not have a night off. I ignored him and had a great time. I would recommend it to anyone.

There is also an incredible statue in Bishop Auckland commemorating Stan Laurel, which shows that the culture from Bishop Auckland can be seen all over the world. For a breath of fresh air, I would recommend going down to High Force, a beautiful waterfall right in the heart of Teesdale. It is a wonderful place to visit—and is also a great spot for selfies. I can see the Minister nodding away; we will have to get him up for a visit. People interested in the stars and figuring out our place in the universe should get themselves over to Grassholme Observatory, which runs an incredible educational programme, where one can learn all about the universe.

It would be remiss of me not to mention one final place—a place that in the spring of 2020 gained international renown. That place is Barnard Castle. It is an incredible town, where, a few weeks ago, I was very fortunate to see some of the best of the culture that was on offer when Mayor Rima Chatterjee held a Holi colour festival. I took part in the colour run and got covered in coloured powders. It was an incredible day, and lots of families got involved.

What I have said today just goes to show the breadth of culture that is available to everyone in our county. I am very fortunate to call County Durham my home. I want to extend an invitation to everyone to come and visit—not just in Parliament and the country, but all over the world. Come and see us. Come and see the best of what we have to offer. The best way to do that, Minister, is by making us the city of culture.