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The Choir School St Peters Church, Charlotte, NC Harewood House
This magnificent
18th Century mansion planned by Robert
Carr and
decorated by
Robert
Adam
is situated in landscaped grounds completed by
Capability
Brown
in 1772 and set in rolling countryside. York
The fascinating
townscape of this walled city illustrates much of its nearly 2,000 years
history. York possesses in its Minster the largest medieval church in
Northern Europe, the general scale of its building is small and human.
Even today York seems more medieval than almost any other English town.
The compact core is a treasure house for anyone interested in history,
architecture or ancient crafts, and is best seen on foot. The Romans
called the place Eboracum, and built a fort in AD.71. Under the Angles,
York was capital of their Kingdom of Deira. King Edwin was baptised here
by Paulinus, who became the first Archbishop of York in 634. The Danes
captured and burnt York in 867 and it was their capital in England for nearly
100 years, they called it Jorvik and it is from this that the present name
derives. There is nothing left to see of Anglo Saxon and Danish York, but
the use of the word gate for street is a reminder that the Danes did settle
here. The Norman's found a thriving little trading centre and burnt it in
1069 during their frightful ravaging of the North, and then rebuilt the walls,
expanding them to take the present 263 acres. Medieval York is everywhere,
not least in the web of narrow streets. The Shambles and Stonegate are two
of the best preserved examples. Too the East of the Minster is the half
timbered St William's College. Three of the nine Guildhalls still survive.
All the city walls are medieval rebuilt on the Roman and Norman foundations in
the 13th Century. A 2.5 mile footpath on the walls gives a circular tour
of the city. In the middle ages, York was England's second city a great
religious and commercial centre. A lovely city with much to see and enjoy. Jorvik Museum
This museum is like no
other museum, the actual building is on the site of an archaeological dig, the
journey you take is around the actual remains below street level, exactly where
the old city of York was built York Minster
The Minster is York's chief
glory, appropriate to the dignity of an Archbishopric, built between 1220 and
1470, it contains England's greatest concentration of medieval stained glass,
principally from the 13th and 14th Centuries. The two most famous windows
being the five sisters and the magnificent 15th Century east window, the largest
in the world. The Ministers length is 518ft and is 241ft wide at the
transept. The central tower rises 198ft and is the largest lantern tower
in Britain. The 14th Century Chapter House with seven lovely window walls
has no central support for its conical roof, just the great buttresses on the
eight sides. The Choir was completed by 1400 and its great climax the east
window with 2,000 sq ft of ancient glass by John Thornton of Coventry was
finished in 1408, the massive towers came last. Durham
It is not only the lover of
architecture who will be thrilled by Durham. It is one of the most
visually exciting cities in Britain. The magnificent Norman Cathedral and
the Castle stand proudly on a sandstone hill almost enclosed by a steep banked
wooded bend of the River Wear. It is a scene well worth looking at from
every vantage point. The best views are obtained from the railway station,
Prebends Bridge, South Street, Silesgate and also Palace Green. The Castle
was built in 1069 by the Norman invaders and the town grew up under the Castle
walls between the two river crossings at Elvet and Framwellgate. Durham is
not a large city but is a centre of local government and education (Durham
University was created as the third university in England by an act of
Parliament in 1832) Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral was
founded as a shrine for the body of St Cuthbert. When Viking raids forced
the monks
on Lindisfarne to flee in
875. They carried with them the body of the saint, they reached Durham in
995 after time at Chester le Street and Ripon. In Durham the coffin seemed
to become rooted to the ground and the spot for the new shrine was revealed in a
vision. By 998 they had built a church (nothing remains of this early
building) it quickly became a place of pilgrimage. The Bishops became
Prince Bishops of Durham giving the city the right to raise armies, own
nobility, coinage and courts. All these privileges were ended in 1836.
The present Cathedral Church of Christ and blessed Mary the Virgin was built
between 1093 and 1133 to a plan of Bishop William of Calais. He died but
the work continued under Bishop Flambard. It is possibly the finest Norman
building in Europe. St Cuthberts body was brought to his shrine behind the
high altar in 1104. The Cathedral was the first in Northern Europe to be
covered with stone ribbed vaulting and it has the earliest pointed transverse
arches in England. There are few monuments because of a long held rule
that no one should be buried in the shrine of st cuthbert. From the South
side aisle a door leads to the monks dormitory, a great timbered hall 194ft by
39ft where some of
the Cathedrals prized possessions can be seen, they include St Cuthberts
illuminated manuscripts. In front of the font is a line of marble, the
nearest point that women were allowed to get to the altar. Almost no
amount of time is to long to spend in this unique place of worship.
Beamish museum
Step back
in time at this wonderful open air museum. 30 years old this magnificent museum
spread over more than 300 acres is dedicated to life as it was in the
North
East
of England
in 1825 & 1913. From the Manor
house to the Wagonway,
the town, the garage, the station, sweetshop, pit cottages, school & chapel, the
colliery, transport, the farm, all aspects of our ancestors living conditions
are bought back to life in reconstructions using original & actual memorabilia. Hadrians wall The most important monument built by the Romans in Britain. It is a world heritage site and is by far the best known frontier in the entire Roman Empire. Built by order of Emperor Hadrian on his visit to Britain in 122AD. It took 6 years to build and is 73 miles in length, 15ft high and runs from Wallsend in the East to Bowness on Solway in the West. It was built to separate the Romans from the Barbarians. When the Romans left in about 400AD the wall became derelict and stones where used in buildings and walls all, over the area. Housesteads Fort (Vercovicium) Possibly the remains of the most complete Roman Fort in Britain. Superb position with commanding views all round, spectacular scenery. See the foundations of the fort, granaries, barrack blocks, hospital, latrines. Excellent views of the wall as it joins the fort. Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
Lindisfarne is famed as the
birthplace of English Christianity. A 3 mile causeway connects the island
with the mainland at low tide and can be crossed during six hour spells between
tides. approx 300 people live on the island, with fishing and tourism the main
employment. In 635 A.D. St Aidan came on the invitation of King Oswald
from Iona on the West Coast of Scotland to teach Christianity to the Angles of
Northumbria. Linidsfarne Monastry was established and the first English
diocese founded. The Sixth Bishop was St Cuthbert who came to the island
in 664A.D. and was buried here until the monks fled
with his coffin ahead of the Danes in 875A.D. The Danes destroyed the
Abbey and the island lay deserted until a Priory was founded by a Benedictine
order in the 11th Century. St. Pauls Church, Jarrow The Parish Church of St Pauls Jarrow has been a place of worship for 13 Centuries. The Church & Monastery were built on land given by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria in 681AD. The Chancel of St Pauls is the original Saxon Church built as a separate Chapel and thus offers at least a relic of Bede`s time. Much of the cut stone is Roman, do look for the three single splayed Saxon windows, the middle one containing Saxon stained glass made in the monastic workshops, it was excavated from the site in 1980 and inserted here in the Chancel. Reputedly the oldest such glass in Western Europe. The Monastery where Bede came as a boy thrived in the 7th & 8th Centuries. Outside the church are the remains of the domestic buildings of that monastery, it was here that he lived, worked and worshipped. The buildings where sacked by the Vikings in 794AD. It was not until 1074 that the church was repaired by the Normans and the Monastery re-founded by Aldwin, Prior of Winchcombe Abbey in Gloucestershire. Do look for the original dedication stone of 685 (above the Chancel arch) supposedly the oldest in England. Although St Martins Church Canterbury does predate Jarrow by maybe 100 years and therefore holds the honour of oldest church in England. Venerable Bede Born probably in 673. In 680 he was sent school in Monkwearmouth but stayed only two years before being sent to Jarrow in 682. He loved knowledge and found the libraries of St Pauls fascinating. He enjoyed astronomy, numbers, Latin and wrote the life of St Cuthbert. He also wrote a famous history book. The first of its kind about the English Church and People. He also loved the Bible and was working on St Johns Gospel when he died on may 25th 735. He was 62 years old. He was buried in Jarrow. During the 11th Century his bones were stolen and brought to Durham. At the time they were put in the same coffin as St Cuthbert. However in the 13th Century they were separated and brought to a new tomb in the Galilee Chapel also in Durham Cathedral. |
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