Wrapping-up Durham and Newcastle

My short break in Durham and Newcastle has been a great way to re-connect with the place and visit some places that have been on my wish-list for so long that I had well and truly forgotten about them! However, it would feel wrong to finish up the trip without mentioning a few other highlights that I haven’t picked up on already.

The first day of my trip to Durham just happened to coincide with the Fire and ice festival in Durham which saw a trail of 10 ice sculptures installed around the city, so armed with a map handed out by a volunteer I set about tracing them. Now, these were not just your average ice sculptures but a rather amusing set of TV and film themed ice sculptures, so we had an ice dalek and an ice demogorgon! On top of this there was some impressive live ice carving of Sonic the hedgehog and a spectacular ice carving show.

Ice dalek

Understandably, most visitors to Durham focus on the Cathedral and the Castle, but it’s really worth seeking out the Durham World Heritage Visitor Centre located within Palace Green Library which provides to access to one of Durham’s hidden gems, the Cosin Library, and the wonderful Museum of Archaeology.

Cosin’s Library, founded in 1669, is the oldest surviving public library in the North East. Admittedly, the definition of public at this time was limited to the clergy and men of education, but it was still an important development in widening access to learned thinking. Once the university was established in 1832 the Cosin Library and neighbouring Exchequer Building became the university library.

Cosin’s Library

I was astonished to read that it was in the Cosin Library that the arrangement of bookshelves along the walls was a European innovation first introduced here. It’s something that we take for granted now that it’s hard to imagine that someone came up with this idea! It’s a beautiful space to visit too.

The Museum of Archaeology is relatively small, but features some cracking finds. The absolute star here was the Lanchester Diploma, discovered by a metal detectorist in County Durham in 2016, consisting of two inscribed rectangular bronze plates. It is the first complete Fleet Diploma discovered in the country, telling us about the career of Veluotigernus in the Roman navy, the second oldest known sailor in the country. A rare survival too, as most diplomas were broken up and passed on to family, allowing them to claim Roman citizenship.

One plate from the Lanchester Diploma

In addition to the sights I have already written about I also spent time in Newcastle, notably revisiting the castle which I haven’t set foot in for over twenty years. It was great to be reacquainted with the story of how the castle keep survived numerous threats and the arrival of the railway. Of course, it was also great to be remined of what a great view over the railway you get from the battlements too!

I’ve had a great time in the north east once again, but rather than shortening my list of places to see the list seems to grow ever longer as I discover new places and historic buildings to visit that I was not aware of. Not really a problem, as it is always a pleasure to come back.

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Inside Durham Castle

I have long wanted to take a peek inside Durham Castle, which is among the few building complexes with the rare distinction of being continuously occupied for almost a thousand years. First as as a castle, then as a palace and now as a university (the third oldest in the country). The castle looks stunning from the outside, but the interior includes some really stunning features that are well worth making the effort.

The only way to access the castle as a tourist, for most of the year, is through guided tours that can be booked online or through Palace Green Library if they have any availability left on the day. Slots for guided tours are only offered about a week or two in advance, so it can be tricky planning a trip around a visit, but I was lucky that everything fell into place on this occasion. If you happen to visit in the summer, outside of term time, there are self-guided tours available using audioguides.

Durham Castle

Our student tour guide took us through the gatehouse and into the courtyard for a bit of a history lesson, before leading us on a tour that lasted just under an hour, taking in the Norman Chapel, Tunstall Chapel, Tunstall Gallery, Black Stairs and Great Hall. The Keep tower, which looks impressive, was not on our itinerary but we were reassured that it really isn’t very exciting on the inside – mainly taken up by uninspiring student accommodation.

The Norman chapel, dating to the late 1080s, was the astonishing highlight of the visit. The chapel is the oldest surviving building in the city, supported by six stone columns with the most extraordinary carved capitals featuring medieval Christian symbols that include a hunted stag, lions, a snake, an ox and a mermaid. The mermaid is particularly interesting as it is believed to be the oldest depiction of such a creature in the world.

Carved stone columns in the Norman Chapel

Another Norman relic is the original ceremonial entrance to the castle which is now hidden indoors, located within the Tunstall Gallery. The archway was added to the castle in the 12th century and is an extremely fine example of its type and all the more incredibly, it is in really good condition.

To be clear, this is not one of those weathered Norman arches that you have seen in other locations giving hints of past glory. Instead, this arch still looks really sharp, albeit without the painted finish that would originally have given it a vibrant colour. It is thought that the reason for its exceptional condition is that it has been under cover most most of its existence – initially under a porch, then as part of the Tudor era gallery that made it a feature of the interior.

The neighbouring Tunstall Chapel was constructed in the 1540s and been extended and adapted in the centuries since. It’s a lovely space but it is the carved woodwork that really draws the attention here. The misericords (on the underside of the folding seats, designed for long spells standing at prayer) follow the usual practice of skilful and subversive carvings, with some fascinating choices of subject that include a pig playing the pipes and a man pushing his wife around in a wheelbarrow!

The Black Stairs

At the other end of the Tunstall Gallery we got to see another opulent feature of the castle, the Black Stairs. These ‘flying stairs’ were added in the 17th century to impress visitors to the restored castle, wowing with the way that they worked their way four storeys high without any need for vertical supports, relying completely on support from the exterior walls. The extravagance of the design was further cemented by the addition of magnificent woodwork pineapples (or at least, what the sculptors thought they looked like) which were expensive rarities at this time. Inevitably, the flying staircase developed a sag and vertical supports were added not too many years later.

Our tour of Durham Castle may have been short but it certainly packed in some incredible sights and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone, especially at the very modest price currently being charged (just £5 per adult at the time of writing).

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Stained glass, lego and an extraordinary stone vault

I reckon it has been around 25 years since I last made the short hop by train from Newcastle to Durham, a journey of around 12 minutes. On this occasion my interest was piqued by the return of the lego model of the cathedral after three years in storage, which made headline news on the BBC. It was certainly a popular draw with families queuing in the cloisters to take a peek.

It was a good excuse to return as it is always quite something to step inside the cathedral, which has retained the vision of its Norman architects without significant modification over subsequent centuries. The cathedral was constructed from 1093 to 1133, replacing an earlier cathedral on the site with an astonishing architectural feast that includes massive carved stone pillars and the earliest surviving stone vault on this scale.

The Illumination window

However, what really caught my eye on this visit was the extraordinary stained glass on display, including two windows that had been installed since I last visited. The RAF Memorial Window (1965) gives us the striking image of a RAF airman being lifted aloft by a black eagle and presented before the angels, high above a Durham shrouded in cloud. The image is thought to represent the mist that protected the city from a bombing raid on 1 May 1942, one of many feats over the centuries ascribed to St Cuthbert.

The three newer additions are the Millennium window (1995), commemorating 1000 years from the founding of the first cathedral, which features local industry from a depiction of Robert Stephenson’s Locomotion to the Tyne bridges; the Transfiguration window (2010); and the Illumination window (2019), an extraordinarily colourful window created as a memorial to a young student, with the most beautiful images of birds worked into the design.

There is, of course, much more to be discovered in the cathedral, including the shrine of St Cuthbert with a modern tester hanging overhead; the Miners’ Memorial and book of remembrance (illuminated by a miners’ lamp); the Durham Light Infantry chapel; the striking views from the central tower; an exquisite wooden 15-16th century clock; the treasures of St Cuthbert in a museum space in the Great Kitchen; and the 13-14th century murals in the Galilee Chapel that give some sense of how colourful the cathedral would have been at one time.

In short, it was wonderful to come back and reacquaint myself with all these wondrous marvels.

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