THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR OF DURHAM

Welcome to the Internet Site for the Mayor of the City of Durham, England

In the Municipal Year 2006/2007 - we will have the 404th Mayor of the City of Durham

HOMEPAGE
BIOGRAPHY FOR THE MAYOR
THE ROLE OF THE MAYOR
MAYOR'S APPEAL
WEEKLY DIARY
LIST OF FORMER MAYORS
CIVIC INSIGNIA
TOWN HALL (in brief)
CIVIC OCCASIONS (ADVANCE NOTIFICATION)
THE MAYOR'S BODYGUARD
PROTOCOL
STAFF
OTHER CIVIC OFFICES HELD WITHIN THE CITY OF DURHAM

BIOGRAPHY FOR THE MAYOR

The Right Worshipful, the Mayor of the City of Durham
and The Mayoress of the City of Durham 2008/2009

Grenville Holland

Grenville Holland was born in Stockport. He came from a family of journalists. His grandfather was a correspondent for the Telegraph; and his father wrote for the Guardian. He was educated at Stockport Grammar School and took a place at Oxford to study Geology before moving to Yale for a Master's Degree in Geochemistry. He returned to Oxford where he completed his D.Phil studying the chemistry of the 3000 million year old rocks of NW Scotland.

Grenville moved to Durham in 1965 and made his name working on the Apollo Space Programme for NASA analysing samples collected from the Lunar surface.

Geological research has taken Grenville to many parts of the World, to such widely, varied places as Canada, the USA, the West Indies, Australia, Hungary, South Africa, India, Kashmir and Sri Lanka have all played an important part of his life, allowing him to share and understand many different cultures and political systems. Expeditions have taken him from the heights of the Himalayas to the ocean floor. During one very deep dive in an experimental submersible it became wedged on a rock face, leaving Grenville and his 2 companions stranded for several hours. He subsequently described this as "the most frightening thing I have ever experienced. I was glad to get out of it alive!"

Apart from Geology, Grenville has spent a lifetime in Cricket. For 34 years he was an inspirational President of Durham University Cricket Club encouraging generations of Cricketers. Of those who represented the University over 70 of them went on to become Test and County Cricketers, with two being made Captains of England - Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss. Grenville is now President of the Northern Universities Cricket Club which brings together talented University, community and 'futures' players from across the region without regard for ethnic and social background. Grenville's "Holland Report" on the future of Cricket, which was commissioned by the Durham and Northumberland Boards, has been adopted by every league in the North East. It comes into effect this season and is expected to transform Cricket throughout the region.

Grenville came into politics in 1981 as a founder member of the SDP. He was elected to the Council in 1987 and has served the Framwelgate and later the Crossgate and Framwelgate ward ever since. Since 2003 he has been Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet member first for Environment and Leisure and then Economic Development and Culture. His geological and environmental background has enabled him to play a central role in the successful Green Belt Campaign, the Western Bypass and Flass Vale enquiries and many other planning and environmental issues.

Olive Holland

Olive is a local girl from a mining family. A nurse by nature and inclination she specialised in Paediatrics and became a nursing sister working for many years on a Neonatal Unit. Her nursing qualifications and courses in Homeopathy have proved invaluable when she, and their three sons, accompanied her Geologist husband in his many travels around the world as well as on overseas tours travelling with 21 University students. She has been actively involved with Cricket ever since meeting Grenville, and has taken on most of the non-playing jobs ranging from clearing waterlogged wickets to hosting the King of Lesotho for several hours when he unexpectedly attended a game. An amateur artist, in the second year of an Arts Degree, she has exhibited at the Gulbenkian and the University. Her other interests include the theatre, the arts, gardening and reading (she keeps books in the passenger door of the car).

It has been a great honour for her to represent the City she loves as Deputy Mayoress. During her husband's Mayoral year she hopes to champion Durham's hidden treasures, the less well known areas, such as the City's own Artist Quarter listed under the less auspicious name of Fowler's Yard, Back Silver Street. This comprises shops with artists in residence and set into the original City walls, a café, entrance to the indoor market and a small theatre. There is also the City's wonderful Heritage Museum, standing just behind the Cathedral, its garden containing a large sculpture by the renowned local artist, Fenwick Lawson, whose bronze masterpiece 'The Journey' will be installed in Millennium Square later this year. And much more!