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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Durham
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The name both of a *county in northeast England (604,000 in 1991) and of the ancient city (26,000 in 1991) which is its administrative centre.
The castle and cathedral of Durham stand side by side on a superb natural site, a high rocky peninsula formed by a long U-bend in the river Wear. William the Conqueror chose this place in 1072 for a fortress against the Scots. He entrusted it to the Bishop of Durham, thus creating a peculiar hybrid, the famous prince bishops of Durham.
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Through the Middle Ages bishops would ride out from here at the head of armies to protect the English realm, and it well suited the monarch that this immensely powerful position was not hereditary. The castle became the bishop's palace. Much altered through the ages, it has been since 1837 the home of Durham university, founded five years earlier on the initiative of the last prince bishop.
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In Norman times Durham was already a place of great ecclesiastical importance, for it was here that the sacred remains of St *Cuthbert were at last brought to a place of safety, three centuries after his death. The Anglo-Saxon cathedral built to house them was pulled down by the Normans, to be replaced by the present building (begun in 1093, largely completed in the next half century). It is the greatest example of *Romanesque architecture in England and one of the best in Europe, notable for the introduction of *rib-vaulting. The Galilee Chapel at the west end (late 12C) contains the remains of the Venerable *Bede.
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