Durham Cathedral (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Dunelm

In the civil parish of Durham.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ273421
Latitude 54.77346° Longitude -1.57619°

Durham Cathedral has been described as a Fortified Ecclesiastical site although is doubtful that it was such.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Cathedral church, originally of Benedictine Priory, refounded 1541 as secular cathedral. Main body 1093-1130, begun by Bishop William of St. Calais; Galilee 1189 for Bishop le Puiset. West tower tops, east bay and Chapel of 9 altars, 1242- c.1280. 1464-88 tower top stage. Restorations of late C18, early C19 and mid C19, notably by Bonomi and Jackson, Pickering and Robson and Fowler. Dressed sandstone; slate roofs. Cruciform with aisles, east transept aisles, transeptal eastern chapel, crossing tower, twin west towers and western Galilee. Galilee one storey with battlemented parapet and richly-moulded north entrance. Large, restored C14 and C15 windows. West towers have 4 lower stages aligned with those on nave: all have shafted round-arched openings (those on south side enriched), the ground stage a blank arcade, the clerestory set back under a corbel table. Elaborately-moulded opposed entrances in second nave bays have medieval doors, the north now with replica of sanctuary knocker. 2 upper stages to towers have pointed-arched openings under bands of blank arcading; corbel table below pierced battlemented parapet with crocketed pinnacles. Transepts have outer west stair turrets, blank arcading and large inserted Perpendicular windows north and south. Crossing tower of 2 stages with tall openings under crocketed ogee hoods, and high, pierced parapet. Chancel elevations similar to nave except for 2-light windows in triforium and C19 Decorated windows in aisles. Eastern transept 9 bays wide, divided into 3 and then into single bays by large buttresses. Angle towers with short spires, the southern with elaborate restored panelling. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

Despite being within the bailey of a strong castle, itself within further city defences Durham Cathedral was also said to be partly fortified. Walter Scott, in the poem Harold the Dauntless described it as 'Half church of God, half castle 'gainst the Scot'. The church is certainly massively built and the attached monastic buildings will have had walls designed to separate the monks from the towns people but it is questionably if these could be said to be fortifications. However, in 1143, 'men burst into the cathedral, smashing through the windows of the church and climbing in with ladders. Having roughed up the monks they then began fortifying the building like a castle' (Goodall, 2011). This shows the cathedral was not fortified but, as with any strong built stone building, was seen as being capable of being turned into a fortification (cf. Hereford Cathedral, Southwell Minister etc.)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1161023 , 1121388 , and others
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 24501.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D1255.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- World Heritage Site 370bis
  Wikipedia entry
  The Durham Record
Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 122
  Harrison, Peter, 2004, Castles of God (Woodbridge; Boydell Press) p. 66 n3
  Corfe, Tom (ed), 1992, 'The Visible Middle Ages' in An Historical Atlas of County Durham p. 28-9
  Knowles, David and Hadcock, R Neville, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Longman) p53, 64, 424, 472
  Page, Wm (ed), 1928, VCH Durham Vol. 3 p. 93-136 online transcription
  Page, Wm (ed), 1907, VCH Durham Vol. 2 p. 86-103 online copy
  Page, Wm (ed), 1905, VCH Durham Vol. 1 p. 215 online copy
  
  There is a considerable bibliography for this vastly important building but the consideration of defensive elements of the buildings design is not a great aspect of these works.
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Rollason, D. (ed), 2000, Symeon of Durham Libellus de Exordio atque Procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis Ecclesie (Clarendon Press Oxford Medieval Texts) p. 318-19
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 150
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 132 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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