Durham Cathedral (Part Two)

Text and Illustrations taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Durham Cathedral.

Photo taken from: http://www.onpilgrimage.com/id14.html

Initially, a very simple temporary structure was built from local timber to house the relics of Saint Cuthbert. The shrine was then transferred to a sturdier, probably wooden, building known as the White Church. This Church was replaced three years later, in 998 A.D., by a stone building, also known as the White Church, which was complete, apart from its tower, by 1018. 

Durham soon became a site of pilgrimage, encouraged by the growing cult of Saint Cuthbert. King Canute was one early pilgrim, granting many privileges and much land to the Durham community. The defendable position, flow of money from pilgrims, and power embodied in the Church at Durham ensured that a town formed around the Cathedral, establishing the early core of the modern city.

The present Cathedral was designed and built under William of St. Carilef (or William of Calais), who was appointed as the first prince-bishop by William the Conqueror in 1080. Since that time, there have been major additions and reconstructions of some parts of the building, but the greater part of the structure remains true to the Norman design.

Interior of Durham Cathedral.

Photo: February 2009.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Paul Robson

(Wikimedia Commons)

Construction of the Cathedral began in 1093 at the eastern end. The Choir was completed by 1096 and work proceeded on the Nave, of which the walls were finished by 1128, and the High Vault complete by 1135. The Chapter House, demolished in the 18th-Century, was built between 1133 and 1140. William of Calais died in 1099 before the building's completion, passing responsibility to his successor Ranulf Flambard, who also built Flamwell Bridge, the first crossing of the River Wear in the town. Three bishops, William of St. Carilef, Ranulf Flambard, and Hugh de Puiset, are all buried in the rebuilt Chapter House.

In the 1170s, Bishop Hugh de Puiset, after a false start at the eastern end, where the subsidence and cracking prevented work from continuing, added the Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral. The five-aisled building occupies the position of a porch, it functioned as a Lady Chapel and the Great West Door was blocked during the Mediaeval period by an altar to the Virgin Mary. The door is now blocked by the tomb of Bishop Langley. The Galilee Chapel also holds the remains of the Venerable Bede. The main entrance to the Cathedral is on the northern side, facing towards the Castle.

Cloisters, Durham Cathedral, UK. 

Photograph by Robin Widdison.

Date: 2006-08-04 (original upload date).

Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. 

Transfer was stated to be made by User:Jalo.

Author: Original uploader was Robin Widdison at en.wikipedia

Released into the public domain (by the author).

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1228, Richard Le Poore came from Salisbury, where a new Cathedral was being built in the Gothic style. At this time, the eastern end of the Cathedral was in urgent need of repair and the proposed eastern extension had failed. 

Richard Le Poore employed the architect Richard Farnham to design an eastern terminal for the building, in which many monks could say the Daily Office simultaneously. The resulting building was the Chapel of the Nine Altars. The towers date from the early 13th-Century, but the central tower was damaged by lightning and replaced in two stages in the 15th-Century, the Master Masons being Thomas Barton and John Bell.

The Shrine of Saint Cuthbert was located in the eastern apsidal end of the Cathedral. The location of the inner wall of the apse is marked on the pavement, and Saint Cuthbert's tomb is covered by a simple slab. However, an unknown monk wrote in 1593: [The shrine] "was estimated to be one of the most sumptuous in all England, so great were the offerings and jewells bestowed upon it, and endless the miracles that were wrought at it, even in these last days." — Rites of Durham.

PART THREE FOLLOWS.