Town Council Events
The Town Council runs an Annual Floral Competition, organises the Remembrance Sunday Service for the Town and also Christmas Festival Event. Please see below for more details.
To view photograph of any of the events please visit the relevant section of the Photo Gallery
Remembrance Sunday Service
Barnard Castle Town Council, in association with St Mary’s Parish Church co-ordinate arrangements for the Town’s annual Remembrance Service.
Traditionally, a Church Service is held at St Mary’s Parish Church Barnard Castle where an observance of the ‘Two Minutes Silence’ takes place at 11.00 a.m. Following the Church Service, the Parade Marshall, accompanied by Barnard Castle Band, lead the parade along Newgate to the War Memorial in the grounds of The Bowes Museum for a further Act of Remembrance and laying of wreaths.
If you require further information about the arrangements for the Service or you would like to lay a wreath, then please contact Yvette Farren on 01833 690970.
The Town Council also co-ordinates the local Poppy Appeal on behalf of The Royal British Legion. For more details on this please view the Poppy Appeal page.
Christmas Festival Event
The Annual Christmas Festival Event and lighting of the Town's Christmas tree normally takes place late November/early December. Celebrations centre around the Town’s Christmas tree which is situated in Lower Galgate and the Scar Top area. Refreshments and seasonal activities are offered within the Methodist Church Hall.
This is a FREE event and all are welcome.
For 2012 the opportunity arose to organise a much bigger Christmas event under the banner of Dickens in Teesdale. That organisation has been at the forefront of a large number of events during 2012 to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth. Despite the changes to the overall arrangements, the standard elements referred to above were retained.
This year’s event, hosted by Radio Teesdale (102.1 fm and 105.5 fm), took place on Saturday 1 December and consisted of a Son et Lumiere on the Castle walls (based on Dickens and famous characters in his books) which were written and narrated by historian and television presenter John Grundy. This was followed by an exciting firework display set to music.
Funding was primarily provided by North Pennines Dales Leader with a contribution from Barnard Castle Town Council. Donations were also received from W Boyes & Co Ltd, Wm Smith & Sons and GlaxoSmithKline. The Lord Barnard once again kindly donated a tree as a centrepiece for the celebrations.
The event was very well attended and a great success. Feedback received has been very positive.
Annual Floral Competition
An Annual Floral Competition takes place each year in July and has been running for the past 14 years. Entry to the Competition is FREE and is open to all residents, businesses, organisations and schools within the Town.
There are two parts to the event; the Garden Competition which normally takes place on a Monday in mid-July and the Show Day and Prize-giving presentation which normally takes place on the following Saturday.
Annual Floral Competition 2012 - Despite the recent appalling weather conditions the Garden Section of the Competition went ahead on Monday 9th July judged as usual by Mr Steve Robinson of Butterfly Garden Services, Darlington. Despite a drop in the number of entries, the standard of entries remained high and it was encouraging that among the ‘long-term’ supporters of the Competition, there were also some new entrants.
In keeping with Barnard Castle’s Dickensian celebrations, the Show Day offered an opportunity for the community to enter a variety of Victorian/Dickensian themed categories. This was further complemented by the support of The Dickens in Teesdale Group who provided a free Victorian workshop craft activity. Prizes for this category were presented by Mrs Margaret Watson.
Despite the inclusion of an additional category this year for baking, entries on the day were disappointingly low, although, the standard of those that entered was high.
Winners from both sections of the Competition were presented with their prizes by the Town Mayor (Councillor Harrison, Councillor Mrs Hamilton and the Meet Queen at the Show Day event on Saturday 14th at the Methodist Church Hall.
Winners of the 2012 Competition can be viewed by selecting the link below:-
Annual Floral Competition Winners List 2012.pdf
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