Durham – Summer School!

A change for today, back to Ireland tomorrow.

I am off to my week long Summer Residential Music School at Durham University in ten days time.  Today I was rung by a co-ordinator who wished to make sure that everything I might need was in place for the week.  She was a bright sounding young woman with that lovely Geordie accent!

This has brought it into sharp focus so I thought I would post a few pix of the place to whet your appetite.  I like Durham very much and have always wanted to take a course there: so when I found that my favourite music course had its summer school there, it was like Christmas had come early!

I am staying at Hatfield College:

An old college on Palace Green

just beside the Cathedral.

Palace Green separates the castle from the cathedral which lies at the southern end of the green. Until the twelfth century during the time of Bishop Flambard this area was the centre of Durham and the site of the old market place. It contained a mass of wooden houses huddled together between the castle and the cathedral until Flambard cleared them all to remove the potential fire hazard which threatened the castle and cathedral. The area thus became an open area as it it is today. Today the green is flanked on its east and west sides by a number of historic buildings dating mainly from the eighteenth century. Most of these now belong to Durham University. They include a former Grammar School on the western side near the cathedral towers. It is reputedly haunted by a young pupil who suffered a fatal punishment from one of his masters who apparently threw him from a balcony in a fit of anger.

“Durham Cathedral is amongst the greatest churches ever built.  Planned and begun by Bishop Carileph (1081 – 1096) most of the cathedral was built in the Norman (Romanesque) style.  The (east) Rose Window is a later addition and was remodelled in the the late eighteenth century.  The Nave, Quire and two Transepts, north and south, were all built between 1093 and 1133.  The Galilee Chapel (west) was added in 1175.  The two western towers were built between 1217 and 1226.  Finally, the Chapel of the Nine Altars (east) was completed in the Gothic style between 1242 and 1280.  Until 1540, the Cathedral was also the church of the Benedictine Monastery where the monks worked and worshipped” – from “a short guide to Durham Cathedral”.

The cathedral (monastery) church, cloisters and other monastic buildings make this, along with Worcester and Canterbury, the most complete “medieval cathedral monastery ensembles” (to coin a Spanish expression) in Britain.

Cloisters from inside and out.

By the way, the Cloisters were used in the Harry Potter films.

Another view of Palace Green:

One of the best known and well-loved artefacts of theCathedral is the Sanctuary Knocker,  on the north door of the Cathedral.  In the middle ages anyone who had committed a serious offence could claim sanctuary by knocking on this door.  The fugitives were given 37 days to organize their affairs, during which time they had to decide whether to stand trial or to leave the country by the nearest point.

The oldest part of Durham is built on the top of a hill, an island really, surrounded by the river which splits at one end and joins again at the other.

Durham Castle

Durham Castle is the ancient palace of the Prince Bishops of Durham and lies at the northern end of Palace Green opposite the cathedral. It is situated on the site of a fortress built to the orders of William the Conqueror on his return from Scotland in 1072. Waltheof, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland undertook the work of building the castle for William but over the years a succession of Prince Bishops have added important sections to the great building.

The present castle is dominated by the Keep which although the most imposing part of the castle is in fact the least historic. In the tradition of the Norman Motte and Bailey castles the keep is situated on a mound and was first erected in the fourteenth century during the episcopacy of Bishop Thomas Hatfield. Over the centuries the keep fell into a ruinous state but was rebuilt in the 1840s as a sleeping quarters for students when the castle became Durham’s University College.

The older and greater part of the castle is situated around a courtyard to the west of the keep. The courtyard is entered from the gatehouse near to the site of the castle moat. The moat was crossed by means of a draw bridge just outside the Gatehouse. Primarily the work of Bishop Pudsey (1153-1195), the Gatehouse underwent some alterations during the episcopacies of Bishop Tunstal (1530-1559) and Bishop Shute Barrington (1791-1826).

Passing through the castle gatehouse into the courtyard, the Keep may be seen to the right while to the left is the thirteenth and fourteenth century Great Hall built by Bishop Anthony Bek (1284-1311) and Bishop Thomas Hatfield (1345-1381). The nearest part of this building includes a five hundred year old Kitchen built by Bishop Fox around 1500. Fox’s coat of arms can be seen in the Tudor style woodwork of the adjacent hatch in the Buttery and depicts a Pelican piercing its breast to feed its young.

Map showing Durham with castle and cathedral, dates 1610 AD.

Leaving the oldest parts behind you go down the hill, over cobble stones and steep, twisting streets to get to the shops:

Coming down is not the problem, it is the going back up when tired that presents more effort:

I’m excited and apprehensive in equal parts!!  But the die is cast, so 17th July sees me off to the North.

PS Hospital OK today: procedures etc. postponed until after another ultrasound in a few months.  Phew!!