Two time-served craftsmen, with divided football loyalties, discovered a shared common bond as they were sworn in as Durham City Freemen.
Gary Wilkinson became a member of the Joiners’ Company while Christopher Atkinson was installed into the Cordwainers’ Company at the Freemen’s November Guild Day, at Durham Town Hall.
Both have been involved in work and outside bodies which have recently benefited from the generous support of the Freemen’s charitable trust.
Mr Wilkinson has been a key player in the multi-million-pound rescue of the Durham Miners’ Hall at Redhills, which was recently handed a £3,000 donation from the trust to cover the costs of an information board to greet visitors.
Due to be officially opened later this year, the £13 million project’s major contractor is the Dunston-based Meldrum Construction Services Group, where Gary is head of purchasing and responsible for sourcing materials.
Sixty-year-old Gary was born and bred in the city and attended Durham Wearside School before starting out as a wood machinist with Alan Wilson, builders’ merchants in Sidegate.
The business switched to Malden Timber and then on to Jewsons, where he was a development manager for nine years.
In his current role, he is responsible for managing an annual budget close to £10m.
He said: “My family ancestry in the city stretches back a long way and I am proud to call myself a ‘Durham man,’ which makes the status of a freeman even more special.”
The married family man, who lives in the city, is the father of three adult children.
Away from work, he is a life-long Sunderland supporter and is also committed to keeping fit through cycling, swimming and regular 5k park runs in the city.
It was a talk given by the trust to the Durham and District Prostate Cancer Support and Promotion Group, which prompted Christopher Atkinson to make his successful application for membership to the Cordwainers’ Company.
The group’s four dozen members, some of whom have undergone treatment for prostate cancer, are backed by nine volunteers and all meet regularly at the Brawn’s Den pub at Brandon.
This year they have twice been backed with financial grants from the trust and remain the only group of its kind in the region which takes its themed “road show” to indoor and outdoor public events.
Now 65, he started his working life as an apprentice armature winder at the NCB’s Tursdale Workshops but has since run his own electrical business, inspecting and testing electrical installations.
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After spending the last seven years as an electrical compliance officer with Newcastle City Council, he is now on the cusp of retirement.
A keen golfer at the Brancepeth club, he was forced to hang up his bag due to injury and now confines his sporting interest to following the fortunes of Newcastle United.
As with Mr Wilkinson, he attended the Town Hall swearing-in ceremony with members of his family.
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