Being awarded the freedom of a city means you can graze your sheep in public places and draw your sword when you like – or does it? As Sir Bobby Robson is made Freeman of Durham, Owen Amos explores the history of honorary freedoms.

QUESTION: what links Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and King Harald V of Norway? All three, of course, are men. All three have led their country. But their CV also includes another glittering honour: the Honorary Freedom of Newcastle.

Carter – who took the honour in 1977 after visiting the city and declaring “I’m very grateful to be a Geordie now” – and King Harald V – who was made a freeman last year, due to Newcastle’s North Sea links with Norway – are in good company.

Newcastle’s freemen – all of whom have their name carved onto a Civic Centre wall – include Robert Baden-Powell and William Gladstone.

Since 1977, 36 people have been made freemen of the city, including Cardinal Basil Hume (1980), Jackie Milburn (1980), and Mandela, who was honoured in 1986 for “recognition of his services to the cause of freedom”. He was still in prison.

But fame and fortune – Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer also share the honour – are not the criteria. “From time to time the city council may decide to bestow the honorary freedom on an eminent individual or group,” says a council spokesman. The eminent include a host of councillors, businessmen, and seven eight-year-olds born in Newcastle on the first day of this millennium.

Sir Bobby, alas, can’t lead his sheep through the city centre, or kill Welshmen with his bow, or enjoy any mythical benefit. “While it is the highest honour the city can give,” a spokesman says, “there are no particular entitlements attached to it.”

Not every area has freemen. Some choose not to, such as Sedgefield, while areas that are districts, rather than boroughs or cities, such as Teesdale or Wear Valley, aren’t allowed. Darlington, on the other hand, can award freedoms, but hasn’t since 1982 (former mayor Jim Skinner).

It’s all part of Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972 which states a council must call a special meeting, and have a two-thirds majority, to award a freedom.

Most North-East cities and boroughs award freedoms sparingly. Not for Redcar and Cleveland the glamour of Jimmy Carter, or Nelson Mandela. They prefer to honour their own, such as Mo Mowlam, the late Redcar MP, Middlesbrough legend Wilf Mannion, and, best of all, Norman Evans, their famous high street busker.

Stockton has awarded just four honorary freedoms: solicitor and judge Nathan Cohen, former councillors Jim Cooke and Margaret Jackson, and, in 1999, Mary Butterwick, who founded the Butterwick Hospice. Hartlepool has awarded 32, from Sir William Gray in 1890 – the first man to become mayor of both Hartlepool and West Hartlepool – to Chris Simmons in 2005, who founded Hartlepool Youth Choir.

Middlesbrough has awarded 16 freedoms since 1967: mostly low key, such as Conservative councillor Hazel Pearson, but also, in 2004, for “Stephen Gibson”. Mr Gibson – known as Steve – is chairman and benefactor of Middlesbrough FC. Gateshead has awarded just nine honorary freedoms, including Mike Neville, Brendan Foster and Jonathan Edwards.

In the North-East, only Durham matches Newcastle for famous freemen. Since 1885, they have made 25 honorary freemen. It’s mostly former mayors – 11 in total – but “The Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Boy Tutu, Archbishop of Cape Town” pops up on the list, as does “The Rt Hon Robert Anthony Eden, PC, MC, JP, DCL, MP.” Mr Eden, who was born in Windlestone Hall near Rushyford, was honoured in October 1945, ten years before he came Prime Minister.

Now, joining Desmond and the lads, is Sir Bobby.

But, as in Newcastle, becoming an honorary freeman anywhere in the North-East means nothing. All councils, when asked if Steve Gibson could graze his sheep in Pallister Park, or if Desmond Tutu could hold a party in Durham Cathedral, gave the same answer: “The honour does not carry with it any rights, benefits or privileges – it is merely an honour.”

Even mayors, it seems, swallow the myth.

“When Jonny Wilkinson was awarded the Freedom of Newcastle, the mayor said he could practise his drop kicks on the town moor whenever he wanted,” says a Newcastle City Council spokesman. “We just thought ‘No, he can’t…’”

However, one group that does benefit are the military. Many areas have awarded parts of the armed services “the freedom of entry” into their borough or city. Middlesbrough, for example, has awarded the freedom to the Green Howards (1944), the 34th Signal Regiment (1972), HMS Marlborough (2000) and the Yorkshire Regiment (2000). Redcar and Cleveland have also honoured the Yorkshire Regiment, Durham – unsurprisingly – honoured the Durham Light Regiment in 1944 (also honoured in Hartlepool in 1958 and Darlington in 1996), and Newcastle have honoured the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy Reserve (Tyne Division), the 101st (Northumbrian) Field Regiment Royal Artillery, and others.

With the freedom, regiments have “the right, title, privilege, honour and distinction of marching through the streets on ceremonial occasions with drums beating, colours flying, and bayonets fixed”. This, apparently, dates to Roman times when only the most honourable legions were trusted to enter a city with weapons poised.

Though, frankly, if the Royal Marines wanted to fly their colours in, say, Gateshead instead of Newcastle, who would stop them?

Can you match these 12 people or groups to the area they enjoy, or enjoyed, the freedom of?

1. Ringtons
2. Sir Tom Cowie
3. Bob Geldof
4. Denise Robertson
5. Jimmy Savile
6. Kate Adie
7. Winston Churchill
8. Northern Rock
9. Robert Stokoe
10. Ernest Vaux
11. Gerry Steinberg
12. Royal Shakespeare Company

*Answers further down page


















Answers
1. Newcastle
2. Sunderland
3. Newcastle
4. Sunderland
5. Scarborough
6. Sunderland
7. Darlington
8. Newcastle
9. Sunderland
10. Sunderland
11. Durham
12. Newcastle.