Last year, Yarm Town Council resurrected the traditional gala which was the first for almost a century. This year's event took place on 21 June.

The first gala took place in the 1920s; the town has a long history dating back to the 12th Century. It was the first port on the River Tees and in medieval times was viewed as the river's most vital port. Yarm Bridge built in the early 1400's by Bishop Skirlaw is still in use today.

Events this year included a live music stage, Victorian funfair, bellboat competition, tug of war, hog roast, street entertainers, including Punch and Judy, and the Lions Charities Fair. Other features were a boat parade, steam boat rides, a 'Yarm's Got Talent' competition an face painting.

The Town Hall was also open for residents and visitors to view pictures of Yarm as it used to be. The Town Hall in the middle of the High Street was erected in 1710 by the Lord of the Manor as a Court House in place of a ruinous Tollbooth. Later used by local magistrates for petty sessions it is now the meeting place of the parish council.

The Dutch style brick building is square in plan and two stories high, with a pyramidical, red-tiled roof surmounted by a wooden clock-and-bell turret covered by a leaded cupola carrying a weather vane.

Originally it had two open arches on each side of the ground floor and stairs leading to the room above, now used by the parish council. Two arches were bricked up in 1888 when a room was made to house the town weighing machine.

On the south face marked stones show the heights reached by the floods of 1771 and 1881; plaques commemrate the local members of the first railway committee and the Yarm men lost in the Boer War.

The alarum bell which once hung above the clock used to be rung to warn of fires and floods. Dated 1690 it is inscribed:

"Si Deus pro nobis ouis contra nos."

If God is for Us, who is against us.

In the exhibition in the Town Hall was the poem by Joseph Ritson (1752 - 1803) entitled "In Praise of Yarm."

Leave courts and great cities, vexation and care,
At Yarm all is peaceful, health breathes the air,
The street clean and spacious, the houses are neat,
And the Goddess Minerva has fixed here her seat:
Content, independent, serene and at ease,
Come trace the green verdure of sweet winding Tees.

Here plentiful prospects are seen all around,
Rich merchants dispensing the fruits of the ground;
Here honour and commerce sincerely unite,
The ladies are charming, the merchants polite:
Content, independent, serene and at ease,
Come trace the green verdure of sweet winding Tees.