The Remembrance Day service and ceremony will be on 8 November 2026.

First is Sunday morning service at the parish church of St Michael & All Angels, Coach Lane, which starts at 9:15am, as on all Sundays.

Second is the service at the Witton Gilbert war memorial at 10:50am. Reader Karen Abbott conducts the service, which includes a prayer for peace, an act of commitment, and an act of remembrance, as well as hymns and prayers.

Riverside Brass Band

As usual, the Chester le Street Riverside Youth Brass Band will play. They are part of the championship NASUWT Riverside Brass Band, founded in 1877 and previously been called the Chester-le-Street Riverside Brass Band and the Newcastle Brown Ale Band. They rehearse in Pelton Fell, Chester-le-Street, and compete in regional and Scottish contests, frequently travelling to National Finals, according to this website for the Northern Regional Brass Band Trust. . On 3 October, they travelled to the Royal Albert Hall on 3 October to represent the North East of England, according to the band’s Facebook page. NASUWT is the Teachers’ Union.

They play beautifully, including “The Last Post” and “Reveille”.

Representatives of local groups and organisations will lay commemorative wreaths.

About Witton Gilbert war memorial

There is a full description of the War Memorial on our website from 2019 . The designer was J.C. Burrell of Durham and the memorial was built and erected in 1922. It features a cross of St Cuthbert on a tapering octagonal column with a square pedestal set on two octagonal steps.

It commemorates the 43 men from Witton Gilbert who lost their lives in World War I (1914-18), nearly one in five of the 222 Witton Gilbert men who joined up, and 10 more men from Witton Gilbert who died in World War II (1939-45). Their names were added to the East side. The names can all be read on the blog post referenced.

The memorial was moved to its current position on Sacriston Lane in 1978 by members of 105 Squadron, 72 Regiment the Royal Engineers, with support from the local community. It is made of Stainton stone and consists of 28 pieces, the largest weighs over 1.2 tonnes. In 2000, the memorial was cleaned and the inscriptions were recut.