Durham Cathedral

• Location: Durham, DH1 3EH
• Opening times: Monday to Sunday 8am – 6pm
• Entry: Free entry to the cathedral, although a donation of £5 per person is recommended. Central tower £7.50. The Treasures of St. Cuthbert £7.50
• Access: No car parking at Cathedral, park in town (charge)

This bit is true. In 875 CE, the monks of Lindisfarne abandoned their island home in the face of repeated Viking attacks, taking with them the remains of Saint Cuthbert, a former bishop of Lindisfarne who had died nearly two hundred years earlier. They drifted around the North East of England for a number of years before settling in Chester-le-Street, about 60 miles south of Lindisfarne, in 882. Their stay there lasted until 995, before further Viking incursions prompted them to move again, still with Cuthbert’s relics in tow.

This bit is dubious. Saint Cuthbert decided he was too old for all this travelling, what with having been deceased now for over three hundred years, and rendered his coffin unmoveable. The monks got the message, and established a shrine to Cuthbert on that very spot. This eventually became the Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin, and Saint Cuthbert of Durham, better known simply as Durham Cathedral.

This bit is more likely. “That very spot” was a piece of land looped by the River Wear, essentially a peninsula, and therefore a good defensive position should those pesky Vikings come calling again.

Construction of the current cathedral began on 11 August 1093 and continued for several centuries, resulting in the finished building being a mix of the Norman, the Romanesque, and the Gothic. The shrine to St. Cuthbert remains the heart of the cathedral, which also contains another important shrine, that of St. Bede, best known for his Life of St. Cuthbert and his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which has led to him being hailed as the “Father of English History”. Cuthbert’s tomb is also said to contain the head of St. Oswald, king of Northumbria from 634 until his death at the Battle of Maserfield in 642. Containing as it did the relics of three important northern saints, Durham Cathedral was a major place of pilgrimage during the mediaeval era, and remains so today if the bouquets adorning the tomb of Bede are any indication.

St. Cuthbert’s shrine is in the Feretory in the east end of the cathedral, and St. Bede’s in the Galilee Chapel in the west. Apart from these two tombs, Durham Cathedral has many other highlights, of which the following is but a small selection.

The Great Kitchen was once precisely that, the place where the monks, visitors, and pilgrims were fed.  The high vaulted ceiling of this octagonal room was once open to allow light in and smoke and steam out, and is one of the best surviving examples of a mediaeval monastic kitchen in the world. Today it is part of the Durham Cathedral Museum and houses the Treasures of St. Cuthbert. These include that coffin that Cuthbert’s followers so dutifully carted around for over one hundred years, and a pectoral cross that Cuthbert either wore when first buried in 687, or was placed in his coffin upon his 698 reburial (for a dead guy, Cuthbert really got out and about a lot). Entry to this part of the museum involves an additional charge.

The Cathedral Library contains many important mediaeval manuscripts, including three original copies of the Magna Carta. Due to their fragility and historical importance, these documents are not on permanent display but do form the basis of occasional exhibitions.

The demonic door knocker on the main entrance had two purposes. First, it was there to ward off evil spirits, and second, anyone who had committed ‘a great offence’ could gain sanctuary in the cathedral by grasping it. They would then be allowed refuge for 37 days after which they had to choose between a trial or self-imposed exile. The current knocker is a replica of the 12^th century original which can be seen in the Treasures of St. Cuthbert Exhibition.

A coal black memorial just the left of the reception area honours Durham miners killed in pit accidents, next to which is a book of remembrance held in an illuminated case. The book was opened at the entries for Dawdon Colliery in Seaham, and records the deaths of thirty miners between 1945 and 1989, the youngest being fifteen-year-old B. G. Banks who perished in March 1962. The colliery closed in 1991.

The Illumination Window created by stained glass artist Mel Howse celebrates the life of Sara Pilkington, a Durham University student who died suddenly of a cardiac-related condition in 2012. When it catches the sunlight its multi-coloured hues spill over the spiritual heart of the cathedral, the Feretory containing Cuthbert’s tomb.

The pieta in the Chapel of the Nine Alters features arresting larger than life beech wood figures of Jesus and Mary sculpted by Fenwick Lawson between 1974 and 1981. It is a far cry from Michelangelo’s elegant, elegiac Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica but no less startling.

I liked the 14^th century tomb of John Neville, 3^rd Baron Neville, and his first wife Maud in the south transept, the first laypeople to be buried in the cathedral. They were accorded this honour in part for Neville’s defeat of those unruly Scots at the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, thus preventing them reaching the cathedral. Like Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias, time cares not a jot for these transient honours, and the effigies of the Nevilles were defaced and partly demolished, either during the Reformation or the English Civil War. What is left of their bodies is now adorned with centuries of carved graffiti.

Finally, there is the central tower, which visitors can climb for an additional charge. Its 325 steps don’t sound like too much of a challenge until one gets to, oh, about the 25^th step (or at least that was my experience).  I imagine the views are stunning on a good day, but I didn’t get a good day.

Durham Cathedral has an excellent shop, and equally excellent restaurant, and toilet facilities.

Destination or Diversion?

One could easily spend an afternoon if not the whole day here, so Durham Cathedral is a destination, no question. It also regularly hold evening events, so it is worth checking their website to see if anything is on before visiting.