Caring For The Colours

What Is Conservation?

Conservation is the act of preventing future damage to an object.

Click the icons to learn more about the conservation work carried out on this Colour. Click the arrows in the bottom corner of the image to view the Colour in full-screen.

What Is Conservation?

Conservation is the act of preventing future damage to an object.

Click the icons to learn more about the conservation work carried out on this Colour.

Colours are some of the most fragile objects in the DLI Collection.

Our Conservation In Action project, carried out in winter 2021, aimed to understand the current condition of the Colours and their conservation needs. The results have fed into the design for the custom-built storage at their future home, ensuring they are preserved for future generations.

Watch these videos to follow the different stages of our Conservation in Action project.

Project aims and first steps

Photographing the Colours

Overcoming challenges

Identifying past conservation

Condition assessments and packing

Timelapse video footage showing the Conservation In Action project underway at Bowes Museum

Timelapse video footage showing the Conservation In Action project underway at Bowes Museum

Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing damage caused by fire and support netting put in place.
Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing holes and frayed edges caused by fire
Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing damage caused by fire and support netting put in place. Some battle honours are still visible on the Colour, including Somme 1916.
Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing damage caused by fire and support netting put in place.
Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing holes and frayed edges caused by fire
Close up photograph of the Colours of 9 DLI, showing damage caused by fire and support netting put in place. Some battle honours are still visible on the Colour, including Somme 1916.

Over the years, Colours of different regiments have been captured in the thick of battle, lost in shipwrecks and even sold as chair covers. These stories help remind us how rare surviving Colours are.

The Colours in the DLI Collection reveal stories of the battalions and the people that formed the DLI. Songs, poetry and other objects within the Collection show the importance of these symbols of the Regiment to those who served under them. The traditions and heritage of the DLI are continued today by the modern regiment The Rifles.

The DLI Collection also has an important role in ensuring that the spirit of the DLI lives on. Through projects like Conservation In Action, we have worked to preserve the meaning and significance of the Colours for generations to come.

That’s what it was on the battlefield, it was a point of focus you know, the Colours were there, they still were flying so therefore you were still fighting and you didn’t let anybody touch those Colours and that’s what it means, it’s just that sense of pride...

Ian Brown, 7th Battalion The (Durham) Light Infantry

Illustrated postcard showing two DLI soldiers posing with a set of regimental colours, with poles crossing. Each soldier holds a rifle and between them sits a drum set and the DLI regimental crest.

©Durham County Record Office [D/DLI 2/7/23]

©Durham County Record Office [D/DLI 2/7/23]

The bugle emblem of the Durham Light Infantry, alongside the words: DLI Collection

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs reproduced with the permission of the Trustees of the Former Durham Light Infantry Regiment and the DLI Collection.

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs reproduced with the permission of the Trustees of the Former Durham Light Infantry Regiment and the DLI Collection.

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