By Brian Spencer
Having only seen Durham city from the train stopped at Durham Station, perched on a ledge high above the River Wear, Brian Spencer vowed that one day he would spend more time exploring the city, but it took a short break with Slack’s Coaches, basically to visit the unique museums nearby (see Country Images, July and August editions 2021), before he managed to get a closer look at this ancient city.
Even though recent excavations indicate there was a Roman settlement at Durham, we have the marauding Danes to thank for the origins of the present city. When they stormed across the North Sea in their longboats around AD 875, monks living on Lindisfarne fled inland, carrying with them the coffin of St Cuthbert, after wandering about the North of England for over a century. In AD995 the monks eventually settled on a site high above a tight loop of the River Wear, founding what became the City of Durham. The site chosen for their abbey was perfect and used the natural defences offered by the steep rocky peninsula, almost surrounded by the sharp meander of the River Wear. William the Conqueror established a palatine, or semi-autonomous region based on Durham to protect northern England against the Scots. Prince Bishops ruled this country until 1836, formulating their own laws, levying taxes and minting their own currency. They even had powers to raise their own army. The original wattle church, the simple building erected by the monks of Lindisfarne, was pulled down and in 1093 the Norman Prince Bishop William began building Durham Cathedral. This magnificent soaring construction, the greatest piece of Norman architecture in northern Britain, took only 40 years to build – lasting–testimony to the devotion of its creators.
The Norman castle was built nearby, soon after the Conquest, and became the key defensive point against attacks from over the Border.
Durham grew as a city around the cathedral and castle, the narrow streets or ‘vennels’ reached down to the Wear. Easily protected by gates, the vennels closed off the city at night, or whenever danger threatened. A college developed by the monks has grown into one of the major universities of England.
Today the city is still centred upon its ancient bastion and original street pattern. More recent development has been on the relatively flat ground away from the river. Durham grew first to the east around Elvet Bridge and, later, to the west around the London-Edinburgh railway line. The railway skirts the older part of Durham on high viaducts on either side of the station. This was where I gained my first tantalising glimpse of cathedral, castle and rooftops, peeping as it did on that occasion, through swirling early morning mist.
Durham University grew around the cathedral, its antecedents in the teaching activities of monks and clergy’s teaching activities. It was established as England’s third university by an 1832 Act of Parliament. Outgrowing their ecclesiastical foundations, the modern colleges and campuses now spread themselves across the wooded slopes of Elvet Hill to the south of the river. A striking modern bridge by Ove Arup links Palace Green with Dunelm House over the river.
We found the most natural way of exploring Durham was on foot, starting at the oldest and finest building, the cathedral. A monster’s head in bronze pierced it is said by a Scottish arrow serves as the sanctuary knocker on the main door. This is only a replica (the original is preserved in the cathedral’s Treasury Museum), but this is a faithful copy. The first impression a visitor has on entering the cathedral is of the massive strength embodied in the Romanesque pillars supporting the nave roof. At the west end beyond the font, a line of Frosterley marble is the demarcation beyond which women were once forbidden to pass. At that time they had to worship in the Galilee Chapel, built in 1175 and now the resting place of the Venerable Bede (born AD672, died at Jarrow monastery AD735). It was he who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English people – a source vital to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. In the south transept an astronomical clock from around 1500 only displays 48 minutes. Behind the high altar is the beautiful Neville Screen, carved in 1375 from Caen stone. It acts as a backing for the simple tomb of St Cuthbert who has rested here since 1104. Traditionally St Cuthbert’s body did not decompose while it was being carried around the North, but when the tomb was opened in 1827, only the remains of a skeleton and a second skull, thought to be that of St Oswald the great Northumbrian king, were found. Relics of the saint, are on display together with other precious items in the Treasury Museum. The chapel of the Nine Altars, built in the Early English style, fills the eastern transept and dates from 1242. Since the Dissolution, monks no longer live in close proximity to the cathedral. Their dormitory, dating from 1400, now serves as the Library. Behind the cathedral are several elegant private houses, together with the 18th-century water tower and the well-kept memorial gardens to the 7th Durham Light Infantry.
Palace Green fronts Durham Cathedral, leading by cobbled ways to the castle. Begun as a motte and bailey mound, the fortress withstood attacks by the Scots as late as the 17th-century, when it was held for the crown during the English Civil War. Later maintenance and additions to the castle were the prerogative of incumbent bishops until it became University College and later Bishops of Durham made Auckland Castle, in Bishop Auckland their official residence. The castle is open throughout the summer.
Georgian buildings line North Bailey, which leads to the Market Place where the 14th-century Elvet Bridge is surrounded by some fine medieval buildings. Further along is Hallgarth Street where the medieval Tithe Barn stands. Attractive small restaurants and pubs lining the main streets have outdoor seating where we watched life go by while enjoying a pleasant lunch.
There are pleasant footpaths across the wooded slopes below the cathedral on both sides of the Wear and all are well away from the river banks linked by bridges at Kingsgate and Framwellgate. A less energetic way to view the city and surrounding countryside is from a launch or rowing boat on the river. One of the finest views of the cathedral is from the river opposite the Corn Mill, or from Prebends Bridge below Watergate. Floodlighting at night picks out the intricacies of the stone work and delicate pinnacles surrounding the towers and roof.
The city has a wide range of museums with public access: the Cathedral Treasury; Durham University Oriental Museum; The Heritage Centre in St Mary le Bow; Museum of Archaeology at Palace Green Library.
To the west of the city stands Neville’s Cross, commemorating a decisive Border battle fought in 1346, when the army of David II of Scotland was beaten by the mixed forces of the Archbishop of York together with followers of the Nevills and Percys.
Durham is the venue for the annual Durham Miners’ Gala, an event happily mixing politics with all the fun of the fair. Durham Regatta, on the broad waters of the Wear to the north of the city centre, is the oldest of its kind in the country. Mining villages, many with unusual names, surround Durham and Pity Me on the Old Great North Road (A167), is perhaps the one whose name most fascinates visitors. However, the village is a disappointment architecturally, simply rows of miners’ cottages mostly built in the 1930s. The name is thought to be a corruption of Petit Mere – a small lake or pond – but this has since disappeared.
