Memorials of old Durham

The Palatinate of Durham possesses special claims to the attention of students of history. It alone amongst the English counties was for centuries ruled by Sovereign Bishops pos...

The Bishop who presided when the body of St. Cuthbert was translated in 1104 was Ralph Flambard. He was not the character to allow the prestige of the Bishopric to decline. Unde...

The Stuarts showed more regard for the Palatinate of Durham than did the Tudors. No Tudor sovereign, it seems, entered the county, but James I., Charles I., and James II. when D...

The borough of Gateshead lies on the Tyne, eight miles north of Chester-le-Street. The south end of Tyne Bridge was the site of a Roman camp, and afterwards, in the seventh cent...

It is clear that a child born into this haunted country, and surrounded from his birth by signs, portents, and auguries, must carry through his life a belief in the superstition...

At Christmas-tide Yule cakes and "Yule dollies" are made, these last being quaint figures made of dough, with currants to mark their features and the outlines of their dress. Fu...

Having made all preparations, the heir started on his mission. Standing in midstream, he waited the onset of the worm. It came, and seeing its enemy, wound itself about him; but...

In the mountainous district of Weardale, one of the most important North of England rivers is cradled, and into this isolated highland dale the Celtic name of the Durham river h...

_Kern_ is from the Anglo-Saxon _cyrn_, _cyrin_, _cerene_; Danish _kjerne_, a churn; Icelandic _kirna_; Scottish _kirn_. The primary meaning appears to be to turn, the act of tur...

Allusion has already been made to the congregation of St. Cuthbert, but of that body some further account must be given. The religious community, the congregation of St. Cuthber...

It must not be overlooked that the shrine containing the bones of the Venerable Bede were ultimately placed in the Galilee in 1370, in front of his altar. The bones are now plac...

The building of a new church seems to have been taken in hand in 1242, a year memorable in the annals of Durham Cathedral as the one which saw the beginning of the great eastern...

This is so much evidence--and it is worth something--in favour of the supposition that the sister churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow were not left to permanent ruin. The popul...

The principal entrance is in the west front, set in a richly moulded arch, with a trefoil-headed niche above. In the second stage of the front is an arcade of five arches, and t...

"The third effigy, William, son of Uchtred, who first assumed the Lumley name, is probably genuine. He appears in a full suit of chain armour, over which is a surcoat, with the...

At Houghton-le-Spring there is a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of Richard Bellasis. It pictures the kneeling figure of a woman with her eight sons and three daughters beh...

There is some fine armour in the present and modern great hall, amongst others a suit richly inlaid in gold, and traditionally said to have been taken from the Scottish King aft...

The home of the Surtees’s neighbours, the allied and equally noble house of Conyers, was at Sockburn, situated on the same sweep of the Tees. Traces of the foundations of garden...

Wesley had evidently a tender paternal regard for the girl. He was in 1765 sixty-two years of age, fifteen years older than her father would have been if he had survived. Peggy...

Nicholas Greenwell, a younger brother of the Royalist William, founded the house of Ford, purchasing that estate in 1633. He married at Medomsley, in 1623, Mary Kirkley, probabl...

---- Cathedral: altar of Our Lady of Pity, 124; altar screen, 121; altars in north transept, 124; Bede’s tomb, 123; Bishop’s throne, 123; brasses, 190-191; Carileph’s choir, 113...

Illustrated in a Series of 53 Designs and Examples of Executed Works, with Plans Reproduced from the Original Drawings, including 3 in Colour, and Descriptive Text. By R. A. BRI...