Neville’s music has attracted attention from the BBC and the specialist music press. His debut album The Edge of Destruction established Neville (53) as a distinctive voice in contemporary British music. The critically acclaimed debut featured on this site in July 2023. However, for this post Neville has brought something special from his family history research.
Durham Miners Gala has been a regular date in the working class calendar for over a 100 year. Thousands of people, many with Union flags and miners banners, march through the city on a big day out in July. They commemorate the past while looking forward to a stronger future together. In film footage of the Gala from 1939, Neville recognised one of the marchers…
‘My great-grandfather John Wright Neville is in the 1939 Durham Miners’ Gala film. The film catches him pointing to where the cameraman is standing.’
‘This Gala took place only two months before the outbreak of World War II. Very much the end of an era. He got his nickname ‘Mutt’ because he muttered – an unfortunate legacy of life in the trenches. He’s wearing the standard ‘sunday best’ uniform for working-class men at the Gala. As far as I’m aware no other working man in that film has ever been identified.’
What else did you know about him?
‘He was a boilermaker at Greensfield Locomotive Works in Gateshead. Boilermakers were the elite of the railway world, building and repairing the massive steel steam locomotive boilers needed immense physical strength. Something which clearly helped him to anchor the championship-winning LNER tug-of-war team for 1929, 1930 and 1931.’
‘My grandfather, John Wright’s son, was the seventh of seven boys as was John Wright (and his father) – so 7th son of a 7th son of a 7th son, pretty rare. John Wright’s wife’s name was Ellen. Big families they had then.’
How did you first come across the footage?
‘When I was Assistant Keeper of Fine Art at Durham University they built the Palatine Centre in 2012 and I was asked to research what was previously on that site, which was the Elvet Colliery.’
‘As well as commissioning a sculpture by the artist Peter Sales to acknowledge the mining heritage of the site I had to find photographs if possible, of the colliery. Not so easy as the colliery closed in 1908, but I believe I found one shot of it derelict.’
‘Looking through archives for images of course the Miners Gala came up. By chance I showed the 1939 film to my father, who identified his grandfather. I was then able to show it to my grandfather (who was in his 90s then) and he confirmed it, and when I got a photograph of my great grandfather he was unmistakable.’
‘So, a million to once chance. The narrative of the rest of my great grandfather’s life reads like the plot of a classic novel. He married into a Romani gypsy family and was disowned by his master-chandler father.’
Where is the film available?
‘I believe it’s held by the NEFA (North East Film Archive). It used to be on YouTube but I think it’s long gone sadly. Luckily, I recorded it at the time and just cut up the bit with John Wright to show my grandfather to confirm his identity.’
What’s next in your family research?
‘I’ve realised in jotting down the information for you that it would be a fascinating thing for me to try to research. The National Railway Museum at York has hard copies of the LNER Magazine (1927-1947). Boilermakers were highly unionized and this information is preserved at the National Archives.‘
‘What would also be interesting would be to identify the Greensfield banner, since railway workers didn’t march with miners’ lodges but behind their own NUR branch banners.’
Alikivi July 2026
If you can help Foster with the Greensfield banner get in touch.
Link to previous post with Foster Neville >>>
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