Durham Miners Gala: Watch rare cine footage from the packed Big Meeting 69 years ago

Have a look at this rare film footage which shows the enormous crowds 69 years ago.

Old Elvet is standing room only as Horden band goes past, and the street looks packed further up towards the racecourse.

Chips anyone?

The parade field is bursting to the seams with chip vans, colliery banners and most of all – people.

Our thanks go to the North East Film Archive for sharing the footage which was taken in 1954 by a keen amateur film maker. It shows the parade passing the County Hotel, and a massive crowd gathering at the Old Racecourse where the chip van and the Overs Snack Bar are surrounded by people.

Lots more on the website

If you want a further flavour of the footage visit the NEFA website to view the full cine clip and plenty more besides.

NEFA has a huge catalogue of over 70,000 items of original film, video tape, and born-digital material. Its team painstakingly preserves, catalogues, and digitises these vital collections of reminders of our past.

Brian Clough in SAFC action

It has previously shared footage of fun at the Seaburn fairground in 1966 and Brian Clough in one of his last matches for Sunderland before the injury which put paid to his playing career.

NEFA operates the The Yorkshire Film Archive in York, and the North East Film Archive, in Middlesbrough. Find out more by visiting www.yfanefa.com

And if you have cine film of Sunderland and County Durham in the past, we would love to hear from you. Email [email protected] and tell us more.