The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Durham (medieval)
Castle chapel
Durham Castle was founded c.1072, but evidence for the foundation of the chapel built against its N curtain wall is uncertain (see Comments). It is a rectangular building, groin vaulted with stilted transverse arches between the bays, and has 4 bays from E to W and 3 bays from N to S. The vault is carried on 6 freestanding, coursed, cylindrical piers cut from sandstone from the Durham coal measures, distinctive for its swirling patterns of iron impurities. The capitals may be of a different stone altogether, perhaps an oolitic limestone, although geological analysis has not been carried out (see Bernstein, 278). They are all Corinthianesque but the Corinthian forms are inventively interpreted with human and animal forms, mythical creatures and foliage and geometric decoration. They all have separate impost blocks above them, which have a quirked quadrant roll below a quirked vertical face, except where otherwise indicated in the descriptions. Bases of columns and half-column responds have a roll below a quirked hollow chamfer. The transverse arches of the vault descend onto half-column responds with capitals on the E wall and short corbels with capitals on the W wall. On the N and S walls they descend onto rectangular pilasters with chamfered imposts but no capitals. The present entrance is through an archway in the S bay of the W wall, but this arrangement only dates from 1840. The original entrance was in the W bay of the S wall at the foot of a staircase descending from the SE of the North Hall, but in 1840 this newel stair was diverted and a tunnel cut directly from the lower hall.
In the following descriptions the capitals that form the bulk of this entry are treated as individual features within two separate arcades, so that the images appear close to the descriptions on the webpage.
Parish church
Situated 2 miles from the port at Blyth, Bedlington became an industrial town from the 1730s onwards. The ironworks closed in 1867 but the coal mines continued in use until the 1970s.
Before this Bedlington was the capital of Bedlingtonshire, a small estate some ten miles north of Newcastle; it was part of the patrimony of St Cuthbert, the Liberty of the bishopric of Durham, over which the bishop ruled as secular lord, and had passed to the see between 900 and 915. It was a resting-place of the body of St Cuthbert on 1069, when the community of St Cuthbert was fleeing from William I's harrying of the North.
The church stands towards the E of the town centre, on the road to Blyth. It consists of a nave with a N aisle and a S chapel, a W tower, and a chancel. The medieval church was rebuilt in 1743 and again in the mid-19thc, and the W tower dates from 1868. The N aisle was added in 1912 when vestries were added and the nave windows replaced. The late-12thc chancel arch has survived all of this, and is described below.
Redundant parish church
Upper Denton is located on the old Roman Stanegate, which ran from Corbridge (Coria) to Carlisle (Luguvalium). The church of Upper Denton is located about 0.6miles S of Birdoswald Roman fort.
The church consists of chancel, nave and belfry. In the 18thc, the W wall of the nave and the bellcote were rebuilt. The church was later restored in 1881 and again in the 1930s. It has been redundant since the late 1970s. The earliest carved features in the church are the chancel arch, the S doorway of the nave and one window on the N side of the nave.
Cathedral church
The Romanesque cathedral church of St Cuthbert is cruciform with two W towers. There is a later-12thc. extension off of the W end of the church, referred to as the Galilee, and a 13thc. one at the E end with a series of chapels called the Chapel of the Nine Altars. The main entrance to the cathedral church is on the N side of the nave, the two doorways on the S side of the nave opening into the former priory cloister. A later doorway has also been created in the S wall of the S transept, leading into the parlour/slype. Behind the central W doorway of the nave (no longer in use) is an altar. Two side doorways into the Galilee from the nave and a doorway on the N side of the Galilee are the only entry points into that space. Of the priory, which was sited to the S of the cathedral, there remains a late medieval cloister having four walks and priory buildings on three sides. Those along the S walk consist of the original parlour/slype (now blocked at one end and and two post-medieval doorways inserted in the N and S walls). South of this are the chapter house, a space containing a former monastic prison, and the old prior's lodgings. A refectory building with an 11thc. undercroft (the 1st floor rebuilt later) is built along the S walk, with a 14thc. Kitchen SW of it. The building along the W walk of the cloister originally included the dormitory. It is now used as a cafe (at ground level) and museum (at first-floor level).
Robert Horne (dean 1551-3 and 1559-61) and especially William Whittingham (dean 1563-79 and ardent reformer) wreaked havoc on many of the monuments, including the monks' graves in the cemetery. Whittingham is said to have re-used some of the stones for domestic purposes and to have broken up others. Some damage was also caused by Scottish soldiers when imprisoned in the church in the 17thc. In 1777 it was agreed that J. Wooler give an estimate of 'Repairing and Beautifying' the church. Following this, drastic stonework 'restoration' took place. In 1795, James Wyatt wrote up a report on the condition of the stonework, which resulted in further action being taken. The 'repairs' throughout this long period resulted in significant chiselling back of the surface of much of the stonework on the E, N and W exterior walls, destroying much of the carved detailing. Despite an outburst of criticism at the time, this came too late to rectify the damage that had already taken place. During this period, in 1795/6, the vaulting of the chapter house and the whole of its E end were also taken down, Wyatt having stated that the walls of it were ruinous. The medieval walls were consequently covered over with lalth and plaster. This lasted until the 1830s, when Ignatius Bonomi caused this later surface to be removed, thus revealing the 12thc intersecting arches. An excavation of the chapter House carried out in 1874 brought to light the original E foundations, as well as a number of bishops' graves. The excavation also exposed a small section of a yet earlier walling running N-S. A reconstruction of the chapter house was undertaken in the 1890s, including a new apse and vault. Many 12thc. carved stones had survived in storage and some were re-employed in various places in the new work., confirming authenticity of much of the carved detailing undertaken in the new work. John Carter's drawings of 1795, executed before the chapter house was altered, were extensively consulted to aid a proper restoration, though the form of the new keystone of the E vault has been found not to be entirely authentic. The original still survives, now in storage (see: Inv. No. DURCL: 17.5.21). Later work on the chapter house floor also revealed more carved stones, including parts of the bishop's chair. By this time, the upper stonework on the S exterior of the nave had been resurfaced with new stone, begun shortly after George Pickering's report on the state of the stonework in 1849 (Curry, 1985, p.22). The difference in the appearance of this stonework remains noticeable. Despite all the interventions, large parts of the Romanesque structures (both the cathedral and the priory buildings) survive, particularly on the interiors. These include the interior of the cathedral, parlour/slype, chapter jouse, ground floor of the 11thc. dormitory buildng (on the E side of the cloister), 11th/12thc. basement of the refectory, and various carved stones of the 12thc. dormitory on the W side of the cloister. A number of carved fragments remain re-used in various walls of S and SE of the cathedral and other places. Kept in the cathedral lapidary is a large collection of loose stones from various buildings. For many, the original locations cannot currently be ascertained. Some, too, have come from other sites.
Further changes took place in the 19thc. These include: the removal of the revestry in 1801-02, which had been built against the S exterior of the chancel; the removal in 1845 of stone blocking of the W doorway of the nave; restoration of the exterior N choir clerestory windows about 1847; and restoration work on the Galilee. In the late 19thc., a room under the stables, built against the S exterior of the reredorter, was discovered. When subsequently cleared out, several medieval carved stones were found. Just N of the monks' reredorter, an underground passageway was also discovered. This leads up to an opening in the SW corner of the Galilee floor. The construction date for this is unknown, but appears to be post-Reformation. Several medieval stones were discovered within it, some of which remain in situ built into the passageway walling (Greenwell, 1913, fn. 220).
Parish church
The church is composed of an aisless nave and narrower, rectangular chancel. The carved medieval-type detailing is mostly (possibly all) neo-Romanesque, the result of a reconstruction of the church in 1846-7 by George Pickering. Sited in the South Bailey, the church sits just outside the SE corner of the priory walls. It appears always to have been a parish church for the use of those living in the south bailey, owned by neither the priory nor the cathedral. Numerous repairs to the church are recorded in the 18thc. and early 19thc. In 1780 an estimate and proposed elevation drawing were made for rebuilding the church. This proposal, however, was never carried further (Durham County Archives, no. EP/Du. ML 9). In 1919, St Mary-the-Less became the chapel for St John's College, University of Durham. The carved stones, formerly loose behind the church and presently inside the church, are recorded to have been in the church cemetery in 1892 (Boyle, p. 377). The church lies E-W but is not quite at the same orientation as the cathedral. It is sited on the N side of the South Bailey Road, the road beginning at the priory gate (now called the College Gate) and continuing to the S end of the peninsula, where the present Bailey Gate (known as the Watergate) is sited. From here it leads down a path to Prebend's Bridge where nearby, in the medieval period, there seems to have been a ford across the River Wear.