Open Meetings
Bowburn Local History Society (LHS) organises various meetings to which everyone is welcome.
All normally take place
at Bowburn Community Centre,
normally on the second Monday of the month,
starting at 7pm.
All welcome. Admission free but donations welcome.
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Meetings in 2026
All meetings will normally be held
on the 2nd Monday of the month.)
January 2026
No meeting
Monday 9 February 2026 – 7pm
Richard Barber – “The Leamside Railway”
Monday 9 March 2026 – 7pm
David Butler – “Dirt, Death and Disease in Durham City”
Monday 13 April 2026 – 7pm
Terry Dunn – “Your House: Who lived there? My neighbours
in the Sherburn road estate [Grange Park Crescent etc.]”
+ What records say about who lived in your house elsewhere in Bowburn
Monday 11 May 2026 – meet at Bowburn Community Centre at 6pm
Visit to Tursdale House (the only listed building in our parish) and Hett Mill
Monday 8 June 2026 – meet at Bowburn Community Centre at 6pm
Bowburn Reminiscence Walk No. 3 – North Bowburn
Monday 13 July 2026 – 7pm
Dr Marie Gressmann – “Learning disabilities in our local area”
Monday 10 August 2026 – 6pm
Annual General Meeting – followed by Open Evening at 7pm
Monday 14 September 2026 – 7pm
Mike Syer – “Bowburn’s Shops and Pubs”
Monday 12 October 2026 – 7pm
Julian Harrop – “A Treasure of Memories: Durham Advertiser images 1934-61”
Monday 9 November 2026 – 7pm
Peter Jones – “Breweries of the North East”
Monday 14 December 2026 – 6pm
Members / Committee meeting
History & Heritage Room
Bowburn LHS has a room in Bowburn Community Centre which is dedicated to the history and heritage of the area.
Books, maps, photographs and artefacts of local historical interest have been collected here – thanks to donations that are being added to all the time – for the use of local research and interest.
The Room is now open to visitors again every Wednesday, from 12 noon till 2pm.
Appointments can also be made by e-mailing bowburnlhs@gmail.com.
Publications
Our latest book, “Early Years of a Pit Village”, is now on sale.
With 394 pages, it lists hundreds of events in, or affecting, the village of Bowburn up to and including the year 1930.
Copies of the book are available, priced £5, from the History & Heritage Room in Bowburn Community Centre (when open – see above), or e-mail bowburnlhs@gmail.com
or leave a message at the Community Centre for other arrangements.
Please add £3 for post & package, if books cannot be collected.
Cheques should be made payable to “Bowburn Local History Society”.
We are grateful to Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership and
to the Co-operative Community Fund for funding this publication.
Without that, it would not have been possible to publish this book at this low price.
(The sources of information included in “Early Years…” are not included in the book itself, to save space.
They can be found, however, elsewhere on this website: “Early Years…” sources.)
Calendars
Our main source of income for several years came from the sale
of an annual calendar, with a picture of local history interest for each month.
Some back copies of these are still available.
However it has now been decided to publish them on-line.
See: Bowburn Local History Society calendars.
We ask everyone to respect the copyright on many of these photographs.
Guided Walks
Bowburn LHS has presented a number of local guided walks,
as part of the County Council’s Countryside Service regular programme.
(See also Local history walks)
Website
Recent additions to this website
Minor details are updated from time to time.
The most recent additions to this site have included the link to a YouTube slideshow about a walk made in August 2025 round parts of Bowburn. (See Local history walks.)
In March 2024, we added a history of the Methodist Church in Bowburn by John Fuller.
In December 2023, we posted transcriptions of the 1921 Census entries for Cassop-cum-Quarrington, Shincliffe, Coxhoe and Cornforth parishes.
For other censuses, see: Local censuses etc.
(These entries were updated in November 2019.)
Transcriptions are also there of local entries in the National Register 1939.
(This listed every resident in the UK, with addresses, dates of birth and occupations, on 29th September 1939.)
