Gary Bankhead - Jewels From the River

A truly fascinating talk from Gary who, in his "day job" is an Operations Watch Manager, currently in charge of Green Watch, based at Durham Fire Station. Apart from being a qualified sub-aqua diver Gary is also a specialist first responder water rescuer.  In April 2007, this interest resulted in Gary and his brother deciding to swim the River Wear, underwater, from Prebends Bridge to Kingsgate Bridge - and back.  On their return to Prebends Bridge, despite the murk and silt of the river, they discovered an ornamental trowel which subsequent investigation showed that it had belonged to Michael Ramsey, a past Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of Canterbury who had lived in Durham after his retirement.

After suitable authorisation from the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral, Gary returned to the river to find a number of other objects that had been owned by Ramsey.  News of these finds did not break until October 2009, but how and why they were in the river remains something of a mystery.

In his underwater searches, Gary found many other objects of varying age and he developed a deep interest in underwater archaeology that led him to study the subject at Durham University. Helped by  fellow students, he has recovered over 3,500 objects.  Under the terms of the licensed agreement with Durham Cathedral the assemblage of religious artefacts that once belonged to Bishop Ramsey was subsequently independently valued and Gary instructed that his share was donated to the Help for Heroes charity. 

But Gary's focus of interest is the particularly large collection of cloth seals he has unearthed.  These seals were attached to lengths of cloth to indicate ownership, quality, length and so on.  Gary is now conducting extensive research into the significance of these items and their relevance to the cloth trade in and around Durham city.  This, he says, will "broaden our knowledge and understanding of several aspects of the cloth trade, at a regional, national and international level".

Gary has been kind enough to provide us with a few images of the artifacts he has found, together with a few notes:-

The heading picture above, shows Gary standing opposite the South Street Mill in Durham, holding three finds from the river: a 24 carat gold medallion commemorating the third sitting of the second Vatican council, dated November 21st 1964; a medallion dedicated to Ram