Durham County Record Office: the official archive service for County Durham and Darlington
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Exhibitions
- 'Adventurers and Pirates' - Hetton Coal Company, 1820
- Looking back at Consett Steel Works
- Celebrating Gala Day 2020
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County Durham remembers VE Day 1945
- 'We have come through' - Remembering VE Day 1945
- 9th Battalion DLI: From D-Day to Berlin
- 9th Battalion DLI: VE Day
- 9th Battalion DLI: In Berlin, June - September 1945
- Berlin Victory Parade, 7 September 1945
- Victory Parade at Belsen, 8 May 1945
- The Northern Echo, Victory edition, 9 May 1945
- VE Day and Durham Schools
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Burma 1945
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Rangoon Victory Parade, 15 June 1945
- VE Day and the Durham Miners' Association
- County Durham celebrates VE Day
- Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
- Soldier: Victory Souvenir edition, 8 May 1945
- Parade: European Victory edition, 26 May 1945
- VE Day not forgotten by one Spennymoor family
- County Durham celebrates VJ Day
- Victory Day, 8 June 1946
Guild Records
Guilds were organisations of craftsmen and tradesmen which controlled both the conditions under which each trade was practised in boroughs and those who were allowed to practise it. Admission to a trade was usually acquired by inheritance or by apprenticeship. Members of guilds were also admitted as freemen of the borough, thus granting them significant political power and influence.
The Record Office holds a collection of records for the City of Durham Corporation. In the collection you will find the minutes of guild meetings which were held for the 'calls' of tradesmen so that they could be admitted freemen. The minutes include the names and trades of those called and whether they were approved or rejected. The collection also includes lists of admittances of freemen with some indexes. You will find full details of the collection in catalogues which can be searched online on the Search the Catalogue page.
You will find other Durham City Guilds records in the collections held by Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections.