Gymnasts vie for national honours – Sunderland Echo
Sixteen gymnasts from Deerness Gymnastics Academy are off to the British Championships tomorrow.
Five gymnasts from the club in Ushaw Moor, Durham, are already reigning British Champions, while nine of the remaining 11 gymnasts are entering the championships for the first time.
Senior women’s pair Chelsea Fisher and Abbi Greaves will compete as senior competitors for the first time after moving up from the age group category following their gold medal success at the World Championships in 2014. They are the reigning British Champions;
In the 12-18 women’s group, Caitlin Owston, Amelia Palmer and Bethany MacDougall are competing together for the first time.
Also new to the competion are the 12-18 Women’s Pair Vicky Gargan and Drew Armstrong.
In the 12-18 Men’s Group Nathan Brady, Michael Gill and Finn Gavin were gold medallists in the world championships last year and are current British Champions, but this is a new line-up, with Ryan Dury joining them.
Gymnastic gem gearing up for two big competitions – Northumberland Gazette
A talented gymnast from Felton is relishing the prospect of competing at two major events, which will pit him against national and international acrobats.
Finn Gavin will be heading to the British Championships in Liverpool this weekend, before representing Great Britain in the Acrobatic European Championships in Germany in September.
The 13-year-old, who trains at Durham’s Deerness Gymnastics Academy, will be competing in the 12-18 age group for men’s four.
His team will consist of fellow Deerness members Michael Gill, 17, from Ponteland, Nathan Brady, 17, from Durham, and Ryan Dury, 18, of Teesside, for both events.
Last year, Gavin, Gill and Brady won both the British Championship and Word Championship in the 11-16 age group. Dury is a new team member.
Finn says he is looking forward to the challenges of both events.
via Gymnastic gem gearing up for two big competitions – Northumberland Gazette.
Pupils Make Their Own Banner for Gala : Silver Tree Primary School – Ushaw Moor
The artwork combines modern images from Silver Tree Primary School in Ushaw Moor, County Durham, with pictures of the village’s past as a mining community – a miners’ lamp, a pick axe and a coal wagon.
Since 1871 scores of banners new and old – each one representing a colliery community – have been paraded through the streets of Durham as part of the city’s gala celebrations. This year’s event – on Saturday – will be no different.
In recent years, the number of banners has increased as schools and community groups have embarked on restoring them or making new ones.
Ushaw Moor’s pit closed in 1960 but there is still a fascination with the area’s mining past – a clue to why the gala remains one of the largest union organised gatherings in the country.
“We have been learning a lot about mining – it’s really interesting,” Millie told me, adding that she never misses the gala.
via Durham Miners’ Gala: Continuing success of the city’s celebration – BBC News.
Ushaw Moor Community Newsletter / 6th June – July 2015
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Ushaw Moor and Broompark Community Newsletter – June-July 2015
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Broompark Play area Officialy Opened (From Durham Times)
A CHILDREN’S play area in north Durham has been officially opened following a lengthy campaign by residents.
Brandon and Byshottles Parish Council recently completed the refurbishment of the £45,000 Broompark Play Area, on Broom Lane, near Durham City.
Parish council clerk Susan Carmedy said: “The same play site came up as a community concern and request for refurbishment in 2011 when several young people and residents sent a petition to the local MP Roberta Blackman-Woods.
“This was then looked at by Durham County Council’s outdoor sport and leisure department alongside the area action partnership, however further community consultation led to the play site next to Deerness Gymnastics Academy being refurbished.
“A lack of toddler play was again brought to the attention of the parish councillors and the county councillors for the area during the elections in 2013 and as the county council would not take this forward the parish council decided to take the lead.”
The proposed project went on to win £5,000 at the subsequent Village Vote event in November 2013.
Further funding was found from Durham County Councillors David Bell, Jean Chaplow and Anne Bonner, Mid Durham Area Action partnership and from Section 106 money secured from Gleeson Homes as part of their Ushaw Moor housing development at the former infant school site.
The play area is owned by Durham County Council, but the parish council has secured a 25 year lease.
It will be jointly managed by both authorities with the county cutting the grass and the parish maintaining the equipment.
Children from the St Joseph’s and Silver Trees Primary Schools were consulted on the choice of the final design.
Equipment caters for toddlers up to 11 years old and there are also four pieces of adult outdoor fitness equipment on the site.
Andy Coulthard, coordinator for Mid-Durham Area Action Partnership, said: “This project is real example what people power can achieve.
“Local children and their families have campaigned over many years for new play facilities in this part of the village.
“The refurbishment of the play area has been jointly funded and includes contributions from local county councillors and the AAP.
“We’re delighted to be able to support this project, in partnership with the local parish council.
“The new play area, which features new play and fitness equipment, is already proving popular with families.”
via Play area opened following public campaign (From Durham Times).
Community club celebrates 18th anniversary – 2-4 Club (From The Northern Echo)
A PARTY has been held to mark the 18th anniversary of a community club in north Durham.
A special tea and entertainment was laid on at St Joseph’s Catholic Club in Ushaw Moor this afternoon. (Tuesday, May 12)
It was held to mark the anniversary of the Tuesday 2-4 Club, which was launched in 1997.
At its height the club had around 90 regular attendees and still has around 60 members.
The event gave old friends the chance to have a reunion and catch up.
Lilian Sowerby, a member of the team, which organises the club, said: “It went absolutely brilliantly. We had a good turnout and it was absolutely marvellous.
“The lady who cut the cake, Monica Smith, is our oldest member and is 93 years old.”
Mrs Sowerby said new members are always welcome at the group, which runs every Tuesday from 2pm to 4pm, and costs £1 a week to cover tea, cakes and biscuits.
She added: “People get friendship out of the group and it gives them a social life. We play darts and dominoes and do a quiz and play bingo.
“We welcome new members of all denominations and people come from the surrounding areas to attend.”
via Community club celebrates 18th anniversary (From The Northern Echo).
Ushaw College buildings and grounds open to public from Saturday (From The Northern Echo)
A FORMER training college for priests for the Roman Catholic church is openings its doors to the public over coming months.
Ushaw College, a Roman Catholic seminary from inception in 1808 until the last trainees were consecrated in 2011, is considered a hidden gem, set in a large expanse countryside four miles west of Durham.
It has been linked with Durham University from 1968 and, since the last trainee priests left, its residential block has been used as overflow accommodation by both the university’s business school and more recently by Josephine Butler College.
Surrounded by 400-acres of picturesque grounds, between the villages of Ushaw Moor, Bearpark and Langley Park, the site includes Grade I and Grade II-listed buildings, including St Margaret’s Chapel and St Cuthbert’s Chapel, as well as an ornate exhibition hall and refectory.
All were built by English architect Augustus Pugin in the classic Gothic Renaissance style.
The charitable trust now running the former seminary was awarded a £3,000 grant towards the enhancement of its herbaceous borders in the formal gardens in front of the college.
Work also began restoring the 19th Century gardens last autumn with initially a 20-strong band of volunteers, swelled on occasions after a call for extra helping hands.
Roger Kelly, chair of the college’s concert and events group, which promotes use of the grounds and buildings, said it was the beginning of a bid to restore the site to its former glory.
“Already, since last September, a transformation has taken place.
“The overgrown borders have been weeded, saplings and briars cleared away, and the gift of 3,000 tulips has resulted in the central borders becoming a blaze of spring colour.”
Both the buildings and gardens are open to the public on Saturdays, from 12-noon to 5pm, with a gift shop and cafe running during those hours.
It includes entry to the chapels, refectory and exhibition hall, with admission free.
Over the next four weeks visitors will also have the chance to view the medieval chasuble, a vestment worn by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, during the recent funeral ceremonies for King Richard III in Leicester.
Tickets are available for a concert featuring the Durham-founded singing ensemble Renaissance in St Cuthbert’s College, at Ushaw, on Saturday, at 7.30pm.
They are available for £10 each from the box office at Durham’s Gala Theatre, but can also be bought on the door on the night.
via College buildings and grounds open to public from Saturday (From The Northern Echo).
Ushaw Moor Community Newsletter / April- May 2015
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Ushaw Moor & Broompark Community Newsletter April-May 2015
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CatholicHerald.co.uk » Cardinal to wear vestment ‘from wardrobe of King Richard III’
Cardinal Nichols will wear the vestment at a Mass for the repose of the king’s soul
Cardinal Vincent Nichols will wear an ancient vestment believed to be from the royal wardrobe of King Richard III when he celebrates Mass for the repose of the soul of the monarch’s soul in Leicester on Monday.
Known as the Westminster Vestment, the chasuble is part of the heritage collection of Ushaw College, the former Catholic seminary at Ushaw Moor, Durham.
There is a tradition that it was worn by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey during the reign of King Richard, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Scholars have expressed the view that its embroidery is the same described by the inventories of his royal wardrobe and that it dates from the third quarter of the 15th century.
The king, whose remains were found underneath a car park in 2012, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral on Thursday. Three days earlier Cardinal Nichols will celebrate a Mass for the repose of his soul at Leicester’s Holy Cross church. He will also preach at a service of compline in Leicester’s Anglican cathedral on Sunday, the day the king’s remains are received there.
Mgr John Marsland, president of Ushaw College, said: “The trustees of Ushaw are delighted that the Westminster Chasuble will be worn by Cardinal Nichols at the Requiem Mass on Monday March 23.
“We are very pleased to contribute to the celebrations surrounding the reburial of Richard III culminating in the service on Thursday March 26 in Leicester Cathedral.
“The Westminster chasuble is one of the oldest vestments at Ushaw. We respect the tradition conveyed to us through the Walton family – who gave the vestment to Ushaw in 1867 – that it had been in use at Westminster Abbey prior to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. This links us to our Catholic past, before the opening of Ushaw in 1808, and before the foundation of Douai in 1568.”
He added: “The Westminster vestment together with many other artefacts we hold contributes to the richness of our heritage at Ushaw. At present, we are opening our doors to events and visits at Ushaw so that our rich heritage can be made available to the broader community.”
The Westminster Vestment is an example of Opus Anglicanum (English work), the rich, complex and beautiful works of ecclesiastical embroidery for which England was famous during the Middle Ages.
It has been made from velvet cloths of tissue linked together with silver-gilt brocading thread, with the figures cut from coloured silks and attached to a golden background.
The chasuble depicts the Crucified Christ with the Roman soldier Longinus expressing his belief that Jesus is the “Son of God”. It features depictions of St Nicholas, St Catherine and St Pancras, the teenage Roman martyr whose relics were brought to England by St Augustine of Canterbury.
via CatholicHerald.co.uk » Cardinal to wear vestment ‘from wardrobe of King Richard III’.
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