2011 Tours
Home Contact Us Booking Form A taste of Puglia In the Steps of the Plantagenets Castles of SE Wales and the March Early Medieval and Romanesque architecture in County Durham Medieval Poland and the Teutonic Knights In Search of the Anasazi: Native American Archaeology and Architecture in the Four Corner States
Early Medieval and Romanesque architecture in County Durham
Led by Dr. Pamela Marshall FSA
24th-28th September 2011
The city of Durham is rightly celebrated for its magnificent setting, its Norman castle and superb cathedral dominating high ground in a loop of the River Wear. The county is also rich in its high concentration of important Saxon and early medieval architectural sites. The kingdom of Northumbria was at the centre of a flowering of Christian culture in the 7th and 8th centuries, which saw the emergence of inspiring figures like St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede. The movement sponsored buildings on an ambitious scale and fostered artistic creativity exemplified by the Lindisfarne Gospels. This tour will visit a range of sites associated with the growth of Christianity in the early medieval kingdom of Northumbria and will also trace the architectural impact of the Normans and the powerful overlords they imposed, the Prince Bishops.
A full itinerary of daily visits will include:
Day one: Saturday 24th September Participants will be met at Durham mainline Railway station at 13.30. Drive to St. Lawrence’s church, Pittington; participants coming by car should meet the group there at 14.00. While some parts were extensively rebuilt c.1846, the church retains its medieval W. Tower, a Romanesque arcade north arcade in the same exuberant style as Durham cathedral and some fine 12thC wall paintings. On to Finchale Priory: set above the Wear, this 13thC priory later served as a recreational haven for the monks of Durham Cathedral. On to Blanchland: check in at the hotel. There should be time for pre-dinner exploration of this small village and St. Mary’s church, an impressive surviving fragment of the great abbey church of the Premonstratensian canons.
Day 2: Sunday Today we drive south to the Tees Valley to visit Barnard Castle and its impressive Norman castle perched on cliffs overlooking the river. Free time for lunch followed by afternoon visits to Eggleston Abbey, another Premonstratensian house of the ‘white canons’; the church of St. Mary at Staindrop, which had close associations with the Lords of Barnard and the Nevills of Raby; the remarkably intact Saxon church at Escomb.
Day 3 Monday: Today is devoted to the City of Durham. We shall visit the Castle, Cathedral and Museum of St Cuthbert, which has remarkable artefacts relating personally to the saint as well as to the golden age of Northumbrian Christianity. There will some free time to explore the city and its other attractions.
Day 4 Tuesday: Today we travel to Jarrow and Monkwearmouth to visit churches that retain remnants from the time that Bede was writing his History of the English Church and People: St Paul’s and St. Peter’s. We shall also visit ‘Bede’s World’ a museum dedicated to interpreting life in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria and Henry II’s great tower at Newcastle.
Day 5 Wednesday: We check out of the hotel and drive through the scenic Tyne Valley to visit Hexham Abbey with its Saxon crypt and Corbridge, which also has a Vicar’s Pele.
End of tour arrangements:
We shall drive back to Blanchland to drop off those who travelled by car and then continue to Durham Mainline Station to drop by 16.00
The tour will be based in The Lord Crewe Arms at Blanchland; set amongst dramatic fells, early autumn is a beautiful time of year in this remote spot. The entire village grew out of the remains of a Premonstratensian abbey, founded in 1165 under the patronage of Walter de Bolbec. After its dissolution under Henry VIII the white canons were evicted and the monastic buildings were converted to general domestic use, giving the village its formal appearance around an L-shaped square reminiscent of an Italian piazza. The abbey church was cut down in scale to act as parish church, while the abbot‚ lodging, kitchen and guest house became a small manor house or hunting lodge for the Radcliffe family. This passed to the Forsters, another prominent Northumberland family, and then, in 1699, to Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, through his marriage to Dorothy Forster. Now a hotel, substantial parts of the building testify to its medieval origin.
Cost:
Cost: £685 (No single supplement)
Reduction of £10 pp for each booking received by January 31st 2011
The price includes: En-suite accommodation for 4 nights with full
English breakfast and 3-course dinner; excursions, including transport,
entrance fees & tuition; gratuities.
Parking is available at the hotel for those travelling by car.