Durham Castle and Cathedral-World Heritage Site

Welcome to Durham, a 30 minute drive from Hartlepool.   We came to see the World Heritage Site-Durham Cathedral and Castle. They are built on a high promontory peninsula-the River Wear and wooded slopes surround them. The Elvet Bridge is one of the bridges connecting it to other parts of town. The bridge was built in the mid 1100's. Isn't it lovey.

We climbed up the cobblestone road. You can see the Cathedral tower in the backgrouond.

  This cathedral was built as a shrine for St. Cuthbert by the Normans (William the Conqueror from France) in 1093. It took 40 years to build  which is the same as the Salt Lake Temple. There had been a small church on this site as early as A.D. 995 to house the remains of Cuthbert.  The King appointed a Norman bishop and made him a Prince Bishop who had power to raise an army, mint money, make laws, and tax the people. He was to protect the area from the Scotts in the north.

The original Norman design used rounded arches for the windows which supported the building. These proved weak. Therefore, they developed a pointed arch-Gothic style. These were the first pointed arches in any building in the world.  Some of both types of arches were used in the Cathedral.

This is the Sanctuary Knocker on the door of the Cathedral by which a fugitive who grabbed it could be given 31 days of sanctuary inside. Within that time they could be proven innocent or after the 31 days they were forced to leave the country - they were taken to Hartlepool and put aboard the next ship that was sailing irregardless of destination. If no ship was sailing, they had to stand knee deep in the harbor until they could get on a ship.

This is the entrance to Durham Castle. The Prince Bishops lived here. (It is closed until Oct. for renovation- used as part of student housing for the University here).
There are also other buildings on the site and in town which are part of the University.

Here you can see the Cathedral on the left, and the castle keep on the right.