There was an early start as Barnard Castle joined in events to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings today (Thursday, June 6).
Co-ordinated by the town council, a day of events will began at 6.30am with the laying of the D-Day wreath at The Bowes Museum.
Then at 8am, town crier Ian Kirkbride made the first proclamation – joining 400 criers around the globe to read the Proclamation written specially for the occasion by Christian Ashdown, formerly of the Household Cavalry.
Other anniversary events are:
At 10.30am, the town crier will be joined by the Barnard Castle School Cadet Force as he makes the second proclamation at the town council offices at Woodleigh, on Scar Top.
From 10.30am to 2pm, there will be a Second World War field kitchen in the grounds of Woodleigh, demonstrating how food was prepared.
The stew (beef) is available to purchase for lunch.
From 6.30pm to 7.15pm, church bells will ring out and at 8pm there will be music of the 1940s in the Woodleigh grounds
Finally, at 9.15pm, the lighting of the Lamps of Peace will take place at Woodleigh and the international tribute will be led by town mayor Cllr Paul Ing, followed by a piper’s lament.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
