The North: Monday

The UNESCO World Heritage Site Marker

13 September 2010
London can't be beaten as a place for a staycation, but having time on our hands still, we decided to use the opportunity to revisit some favourite places in the north of England. Monday morning we took off for The North, as the motorway signage describes it on route signs — along with The South and The West — I'm not sure I have ever seen The East on a sign though. The most important companion volumes on our travels are our two pub guides (CAMRA and Michelin) and our 1000 Best Churches book. On this trip, Bob hauled along a pile of works about the Saxons. He has been reading books about early Christianity in Northern Europe and about  illuminated manuscripts for the past few years. Our plan was to visit Saxon sites, some we have never seen, others we visited years ago when we knew much less about early medieval history.

The so-called Dark Ages were passed over quickly when we studied high school World History in the early 1960s. As I remember it, there was a farewell to Rome, followed by hello Norman Conquest with a mention that not much happened in between. 650 years! That would be from the stirrings of the Renaissance to the present day in the measurement of years. Of course a great deal happened, but what that would be is still mostly a mystery. Recent finds like the Staffordshire Hoard are greeted with such excitement because every artifact offers a few more clues to the puzzle. Fortunately those 600 years aren't quite as Dark as they once were deemed to be with much of the information coming from Christian sources.

We arrived in Durham by mid-afternoon. I first went to Durham because of Bill Bryson. Before Megan and I spent the summer of 1997 traveling in England, I read Bryson's Notes on a Small Island in which he visits Durham and finds it to be a lovely spot that is totally ignored and avoided by all citizens of this country. In the years since moving to London, I have regularly asked people if they have ever been to Durham, and invariably the answer is no. Durham does have a large, highly regarded university, so there must be some regular movement in and out of the city from across the country. Bill Bryson has been rewarded by being made Chancellor of Durham University. (The Chancellor is a ceremonial role in the UK; the actual work is done by the Vice Chancellor.) And this is my third trip to Durham which finally has a decent restaurant — organic, local sourcing  — so visitors are not limited to fish-and-chips or tikka masala any longer.

Accommodation is still bleak except during university holidays, when cheap rooms can be rented in the dorms. The original university college is housed in the Norman Castle that faces the Cathedral across the Palace Green. So we booked into the Castle, and were assigned a room at the top of a stairwell tower with the loo two or three flights below! It's cheap and clean, the beds are comfortable, and breakfast is served in the 14th century Great Hall, and the largest in England at the time, so no complaints from here.

Palace Green and Entrance to Durham Castle

Norman Portal to the Castle

Detail of Portal carving

The Castle Bailey with the Motte on the embanked rise

The Pelican, a medieval symbol of charity, in the entrance to our tower

The ancient timber roof supports in our room

The 14th c. Great Hall set for our breakfast

The Hall's Gallery. No entertaining minstrels at breakfast though

Durham Cathedral is my favourite cathedral. The cathedral and castle are set high on the tip of an ox-bow in the River Wear, so they seem to be surrounded by water. During the 19th century the peninsula was planted with trees and ringed with high and low paths that circle the buildings offering gorgeous vistas in all directions.

Over the River Wear 

Up the steep pavement

And the Cathedral appears

With its Door Knocker offering Sanctuary to all who knock
This is a replica of the original displayed in the Cathedral Museum

A strict no photography rule is imposed in the Cathedral which is sad because Durham is my favourite cathedral with its massive carved piers. This picture is borrowed from Google images.

The original cathedral is pure Romanesque, but extensions over the next few centuries have added Gothic embellishment to the interior and exterior. The most famous additions are the Galilee Porch at the west end where the Venerable Bede is buried and the Gothic Chapel of the Nine Altars at the east end where the pilgrimage Shrine of St Cuthbert was built to house his bones 400 years after his death.