Durham Cathedral

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I like to park up in a car park near the river then walk along the north side of the Wear and cross over an old bridge below the Cathedral. You approach the Cathedral from the riverside.
Gawp in awe and then a stroll down to the market square looking in shops. Bite to eat then back to car and a short drive to Finchale Abbey which is another beautiful spot.
 


HABA87 said:
I thought that too, but one of the purple cloaks told me otherwise. To be honest I don't know which is true!
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Definitely done on purpose. If you start at that pillar and draw various arcs, they all go through the most significant parts of the building.
 
T_Bone said:
I like to park up in a car park near the river then walk along the north side of the Wear and cross over an old bridge below the Cathedral. You approach the Cathedral from the riverside.
Gawp in awe and then a stroll down to the market square looking in shops. Bite to eat then back to car and a short drive to Finchale Abbey which is another beautiful spot.
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Went to Finchale Abbey the other week..it is beautiful like..first time i'd been since i was a young'un..didn't realise Frankland was right next to it.
 
Sat in Ciao Ciao at this precise moment with bacon and sausage sarnie and coffee staring at the wonder that is Durham Cathedral. Not very close though.
 
Cheesy Feet said:
Went to Finchale Abbey the other week..it is beautiful like..first time i'd been since i was a young'un..didn't realise Frankland was right next to it.
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Frankland on outskirts, durham hmp in centre iirc.

I didnt know that till last month like.
 
DJP said:
Anyone know when the scaffolding\building work is going to be finished on the main tower? It has been ongoing for yonks.


Aye, this ^^^^
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It's going to be going on all of this year. Supposed to be finished by now. Amazingly they sacked the Clerk of Works mid job and it all ground to a halt. Bit of a shambles by all accounts.
 
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My Grandad used to take us to Finchale Abbey. Picnic and a play in the river - brilliant day out :D Have taken my lot a few times.

I liked the leaflet when Adventure Valley opened. It had directions and a map on but they missed off Frankland. It would have been amusing if they'd said "go past the high security prison......." :lol:
 
T_Bone said:
I like to park up in a car park near the river then walk along the north side of the Wear and cross over an old bridge below the Cathedral. You approach the Cathedral from the riverside.
Gawp in awe and then a stroll down to the market square looking in shops. Bite to eat then back to car and a short drive to Finchale Abbey which is another beautiful spot.
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prebends bridge. it's a lovely walk along there.

https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/architecture/historic-bridges
 
becs said:
My Grandad used to take us to Finchale Abbey. Picnic and a play in the river - brilliant day out :D Have taken my lot a few times.

I liked the leaflet when Adventure Valley opened. It had directions and a map on but they missed off Frankland. It would have been amusing if they'd said "go past the high security prison......." :lol:
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I got a shock when I came to it before you turn in to the Priory site..been some bad lads in there over the years.
 
Compulsory Bryson quote:

"I WAS HEADING FOR NEWCASTLE, BY WAY OF YORK, WHEN I DID another impetuous thing. I got off at Durham, intending to poke around the cathedral for an hour or so and fell in love with it instantly in a serious way. Why, it's wonderful - a perfect little city - and I kept thinking: 'Why did no-one tell me about this?' I knew, of course, that it had a fine Norman cathedral but I had no idea that it was so splendid. I couldn't believe that not once in twenty years had anyone said to me, 'You've never been to Durham? Good God, man, you must go at once! Please - take my car.' I had read countless travel pieces in Sunday papers about weekends away in York, Canterbury, Norwich, even Lincoln, but I couldn't remember reading a single one about Durham, and when I asked friends about it, I found hardly any who had ever been there. So let me say it now: if you have never been to Durham, go at once. Take my car. It's wonderful.
The cathedral, a mountain of reddish-brown stone standing high above a lazy green loop of the River Wear, is, of course, its glory. Everything about it was perfect - not just its setting and execution but also, no less notably, the way it is run today. For a start there was no nagging for money, no 'voluntary' admission fee. Outside, there was simply a discreet sign announcing that it cost £700,000 a year to maintain the cathedral and that it was now engaged on a £400,000 renovation project on the east wing and that they would very much appreciate any spare money that visitors might give them. Inside, there were two modest collecting boxes and nothing else - no clutter, no nagging notices, no irksome bulletin boards or
stupid Eisenhower flags, nothing at all to detract from the unutterable soaring majesty of the interior. It was a perfect day to see it. Sun slanted lavishly through the stained-glass windows, highlighting the stout pillars with their sumptuously grooved patterns and spattering the floors with motes of colour. There were even wooden pews.
I'm no judge of these things, but the window at the choir end looked to me at least the equal of the more famous one at York, and this one at least you could see in all its splendour since it wasn't tucked away in a transept. And the stained-glass window at the other end was even finer. Well, I can't talk about this without babbling because it was just so wonderful. As I stood there, one of only a dozen or so visitors, a verger passed and issued a cheery hello. I was charmed by this show of friendliness and captivated to find myself amid such perfection, and I unhesitatingly gave Durham my vote for best cathedral on planet Earth.
When I had drunk my fill, I showered the collection pot with coins and wandered off for the most fleeting of looks at the old quarter of town, which was no less ancient and beguiling, and returned to the station feeling simultaneously impressed and desolate at just how much there was to see in this little country and what folly it had been to suppose that I might see anything more than a fraction of it in seven flying weeks."

Bill Bryson - Notes Fom a Small island
 
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