A PAINTING which hangs in a town library tells the tale of a once great event which brought tens of thousands of people to the area.

John Wilson Carmichael’s 1860 depiction of Auckland Festival Flower Show in Auckland Park, County Durham, shows throngs of people gathered in Bishop Auckland for a horticulture and music festival the previous year.

And now the picture is inspiring a team of community volunteers and historians, led by Bishop Auckland and Coundon In Bloom.

Durham County Councillor Joy Allen, chairman of the Bloom committee, said: “I’m blown away by our heritage and history, it needs to be explored and presents opportunities for us to build upon today.”

The show was founded by the Bishop of Durham Edward Maltby, who had been impressed by produce shows held by local miners, and grew throughout the 1850s, 60s and 70s.

Newspapers of the time described Bishop Auckland’s as the best event of its kind– with up to 30,000 visitors at its height– and growers, performers and judges travelled from far afield by rail up until the last reported festival in 1887.

Professor Stephen Martin, who has researched the history of music in the area, discovered a hornpipe composed especially for the event by William Laybourn in 1857.

The revived interest in the festival could lead to more crossover between the arts and music with Bloom projects and shape events such as summer concerts and education initiatives.

Prof Martin hopes it will also lead to better recognition of the area’s role in taking music to the masses, including formal acknowledgement of Shildon composer Thomas Bulch who wrote the music to Waltzing Matilda.

Gerald Slack, secretary of Auckland Railways Group, hopes to explore the festival’s links with south Durham’s collieries, industrialists and the development of the railway network.

And The Auckland Project and Bishop Auckland Civic Society plan to get involved.

The painting itself has its own story to tell.

It had been saved for the town in 1996 by local historian and author Barbara Laurie, who found it had been loaned out and was hanging in the officers’ mess at York Army Barracks and arranged for its return to the town hall.

Cllr Allen said: “The Bloom group always had the painting and the 19th century festival in mind and it gives us something to aspire to.

“As a tourist destination we need to make the most of this, we’re learning lots about the horticulture, music, railway history and, with other areas like Shildon, Bishop Auckland needs to use it as an opportunity, we have a wide variety of ideas that we could look at in future, based on our rich past.”

To join the group of share knowledge contact Cllr Allen on joy.allen@durham.gov.uk or 07762-791347.