A VILLAGE will come to a standstill this week when its replica miners’ banner is paraded through the streets.

The banner, which has been created during a year-long project, will be unfurled in Lanchester on Friday during a music and dance event.

The original Fenhall Drift Lodge Banner, featuring images of the parish church along with Roman and mining figures, was created in 1960.

When the mine closed three years later, the banner left the village, but was brought back in 2012 under the care of Lanchester Parish Council.

Lanchester Miners’ Banner Group has since raised more than £24,000 to carry out conservation work on the original banner and produce a replica which will be flown for the first time on Friday.

The banner will be paraded along Front Street, led by Lanchester Brass Band and representatives of the village’s churches and followed by hundreds of local schoolchildren.

It will leave Lanchester EP Primary School at 1.30pm and be carried to the Village Green, where the children will provide a display of maypole and traditional miners’ rapper dancing.

Music will be provided by Lanchester Brass Band and St Bede’s School and there will be an opportunity to view the replica banner and displays of art work from the schools.

The whole of Front Street will be closed to traffic from 1.15pm to 2pm, while the section on front of the Village Green will be closed until 3.10pm.