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North East Durham City

There's more to Durham than the Cathedral and Castle.

This is probably the most popular image of Durham.

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The cathedral and castle occupy the centre of a deep incised meander in the River Wear and are the place most people head to first. The usual route is from the market place along Saddler Street with its small shops and The Bailey.

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This is the heart of the original university with Hatfield, St Chads College, St Johns College and St Cuthbert’s Society. It is lined with attractive Georgian Brick Houses. The Assembly Rooms are here and still used for performances by the University. The Church of St Mary le Bow dates from the C17th and is now the Durham Museum and Heritage Centre. The tiny Church of St Mary the Less is the chapel for St John’s College and has a splendid Norman doorway.

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The other route is along the river banks to Prebend’s Bridge with Sir Walter Scott’s poem about Durham. This is the place for that classic shot of the cathedral.

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The Cathedral must be one of the best examples of Norman architecture in England and is an awe inspiring building.

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The splendid Norman building replaced an earlier church, built to hold the body of St Cuthbert. When Cuthbert died in 687 he was buried on Lindisfarne, Holy Island. Vikings raids in the C8th and C9th forced the monks to flee taking the coffin of St Cuthbert with them. The coffin was carried around the north east for over a hundred years before being buried in the newly built church at Durham.

According to the legend, the cart carrying the coffin came to a standstill and no-one could get it to move. After a period of fasting and meditation, St Cuthbert appeared in a vision to one of the monks saying the coffin should be taken to a place called Dunholm. The monks were now able to move the coffin, although they had no idea where Dunholm was. By chance a few days later, they heard a milkmaid asking another milkmaid if she had seen her dun cow that had wandered off. The other replied she had seen the cow roaming near Dunholm. The monks followed the milkmaids to where they found the dun cow. This place became the site for a new church for the body of St Cuthbert in AD995. The story is remembered by an C18th carving of two milkmaids and a cow on the north west corner of the Cathedral.

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St Cuthbert’s Shrine is still there behind the high altar and was a major place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. The lavishly decorated tomb was destroyed during the Reformation and now there is a simple stone set in the floor with CUTHBERTUS engraved on it

Don’t miss the Durham Miner’s Memorial in the nave remembering all the miners who lost their lives in the pit. Equally touching is the RAF memorial Window at the back of the north aisle with an airman on the back of an eagle flying over Durham Cathedral.

Palace Green standing between the cathedral and castle was the original market place. It is now a large grassy area lined with lovely old buildings including Durham University Music School, Durham Union Buildings and Palace Green Library. This now houses several exhibitions and includes the Archaeology Museum, moved here from the fulling mill on the river banks below the cathedral.
https://www.durham.ac.uk/things-to-do/venues/durham-castle/
Durham Castle a splendid example of a Norman motte and bailey castle and reached through an archway off Palace Green. It is now the home of University College and is not open to the public apart from guided tours.

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On the far side of the cathedral is The College, another green space surrounded by attractive houses lived in by cathedral dignitaries. This is always quiet and peaceful away from the bustle of Palace Green.

The Market Place is surrounded by splendid Victorian buildings. The Town Hall is open office hours and is mid C19th but modelled on a medieval hall with a lovely hammer beam roof.

St Nicholas Church, better known as St Nic's with its lovely spire is also mid C19th replacing an earlier church.

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Off the Market Place is the covered market still reached by a rather dour passageway. Inside it is attractive and well lit by skylight windows. It contains a range of up market shops including a toy shop, book shop, butchers, bakers and fish monger.

Of pride of place in the centre of the Market Place is the statue of the third Marquis of Londonderry who was an important colliery owner and built Seaham harbour. Otherwise known as ‘the Man on the Horse’, the green copper figure is wearing a Hussar uniform and is on a sandstone pillar. The statue of King Neptune has been returned to the Market Place after languishing forgotten in Wharton Park for many years. The DLI statue depicting a soldier from the Korean War is a recent addition.

Durham still manages to retain smaller family owned shops as well as the major chain stores.

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The Milburngate centre built at the end of the 1960s and now renamed The Gates, is showing its age and is full of discount shops. The Prince Bishops shopping centre built thirty years later is much more successful with a range of attractive shops. The Walkergate Centre above the car park seems to be mainly eateries and entertainment.

Dunelm House, the Students’ Union building was cutting edge architecture when it was opened in 1965 and won many awards. The reinforced concrete building is now showing its age and looking very sad and unkempt. Kingsgate Bridge next to it is also built from reinforced concrete but the years have treated this more kindly.

On the river banks across from the cathedral is St Oswald's Church. It is thought there was a church here before the cathedral. Little survives of the Norman building and most of the church dates from the C14th. It has always been popular with students.

Across the loop of the river is St Margaret of Antioch which has a Norman chancel arch and two Norman windows, although most of the building is C14th.

On the outskirts of the city is the Oriental Museum. The University has always had a flourishing Oriental Department and close links with Teikyo University, Japan who have a campus here. The museum is an attractive modern building and is a treasure house of exhibits covering China, Japan, India and South Asia, the Himalayas including Tibet and Nepal as well as Ancient Egypt.

For the gardeners, there is the University Botanic Garden, set on the hillside above the science buildings. There is an Alpine garden as well as a bamboo grove. Glass houses contain everything from cacti to a tropical rain forest. Throw in a woodland and wild flower meadow and some of the best views in Durham.

There is also the delightful Crook Hall, now in the care of the Nationakl Trust, which is a real hidden gem, with a C13th hall with Jacobean and Georgian additions hidden away between the trees above the north bank of the River Wear.

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It is surrounded by a series of almost secret gardens which flow into each other. Although only a short walk from the city centre it is an oasis of peace away from the hustle and bustle of Durham.

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Durham is a friendly city and the small size of the centre makes everything within easy walking distance. It is a city to explore on foot. There are small alleyways and hidden corners, as well as a network of footpaths along the river banks. The only downside are all the hills...

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