Central Tower

On entry I was corralled into the Galilee Chapel. This contained the remains of the Venerable Bede. Thankfully they were locked in a black limestone tomb. His bones were originally buried at Jarrow, but were moved to Durham in 1104. After this dramatic introduction to the Cathedral I reached the ticket office. It was actually free to enter the Cathedral (although donations were welcome), but you can pay for optional extras. I wanted to climb up to the top of the Central Tower and so bought a ticket for it. I’d missed the 13:00 start by 10 minutes for the last group to go up, but two clergy bouncers at the entry door said that it was still okay for me to go up too. And so I started climbing up the stone spiral staircase. And I climbed, and I climbed and I climbed. The Central Tower is 66m high. Halfway up, I had to walk down a corridor which led me to an entry point to the final stone spiral staircase. This was much narrower than the one I’d climbed already and seemed steeper. After a few minutes, I heard some voices above me. ‘Please don’t let me meet anybody coming down!’ I prayed. There was no way you could pass somebody on these steps and whoever I met would have the right-arm-sword-spiral-staircase-fighting-advantage. Apart from that, I was too knackered to fight. Thankfully, the voices I’d heard had been carried down the stairwell from the people already on the roof.   
‘Is anybody else coming up?’ a chap asked me as I stumbled from the stairwell into daylight.

‘Strewth! Give me time to get my breath back’ I thought. ‘No. I wasn’t aware of anybody following me up,’ I told him. He disappeared down the stairwell like somebody setting off on a helter-skelter.

As my heartbeat reduced below 100 bpm and my vision stopped blurring, I noticed a man standing on a metal sloping platform; he was grasping a bracing cable for the lightning conductor as though his life depended on it and his ashen face indicated that he very much didn’t want to be there. 

Apart from this rather nervous  chap, there were five other people on the roof. The edge of the tower was crenelated and iron bars filled any gaps in the stonework. Even so, the view over the edge revealed a massive drop and it took me a minute or two to gather my thoughts and regain my sea legs. The gradually sloping metal platform didn’t help. I thought it might be slippery at first, but it wasn't that bad and I soon gained confidence with it. The Central Tower may only be 66m high, but the Cathedral stands on a hill that is 60m above the River Wear and so the height seems greater. There was an amazing view westwards over the lower twin towers.  Below them I could see the River Wear and the Old Corn Mill where I’d looked up at the Cathedral earlier on this morning's walk (see Durham’s Peninsula Pilgrimage). The mill looked tiny. Over to the northeast I could see a large building on a hill which I took to be the National Trust’s Penshaw monument. I’d visited the monument a few times (see NT Penshaw), but I couldn’t ever remember seeing Durham Cathedral from there. I guessed that it must have been about 15 miles away. I wandered around the perimeter of the tower, admiring the views and taking photo after photo. The nervous chap and his wife shuffled across to the stairwell and disappeared. I decided to give him 10 minutes grace before following him myself. The trip up the Central Tower had turned out to be a worthwhile and memorable choice. 

Nave, Cuthbert And The Quire

Back on terra firma I looked up at the grand Prior Castell’s Clock. This dated back to the early 16th century, although parts of it probably were earlier. As with these early clocks, the face originally had one hand and forty-eight divisions marking the quarter hours. There were also three dials at the top. One showed the month, another the day and the last showed the phase of the moon. Near to the clock was the Chapel of the Durham Light Infantry. The Books of Remembrance of those  who served in the First World War list 12,556 who died, and 3,011 in the Second World War. 

I walked to the long line of the Nave that ran from north to south. Nave is derived from the latin ‘navis’, meaning ship. Looking down that long aisle with the arched buttresses, it’s easy to imagine it resembling an upturned ship. The thing that grabbed my  attention though was the large circular rose window at the south end of the Cathedral. It was a late 18th century reworking of a medieval predecessor. I made my way towards it to get a closer look. This revealed some equally stunning windows below the rose window at the Chapel of the Nine Altars. 

On a sunny day, the coloured windows must cast a wonderful light on the Shrine of St Cuthbert below it. The saint was buried beneath a simple stone slab that bears his name. Next to it was a mutilated 15th century statue of Cuthbert holding the head of the Northumbrian King Oswald, which was also buried in the grave. Above was a 20 century canopy by Ninian Comper depicting Christ In Glory. Cuthbert may have done quite a bit of travelling after his death, but he ended up at quite a dramatic resting place.   

I left Cuthbert and plodded next door to the Quire. This offered a good view of the organ, high on one wall above the seating and the intricate wood carvings. To be honest, I was feeling a bit rushed at this point. Some of the clergy were following me at a discrete distance and roping off areas where I’d been. When I looked at them, they’d turn away or tie a shoelace or something. On reaching the Crossing, the reason became clear; a stage had been set up and some technicians were doing some sound testing with microphones and speakers. We were about 15 minutes away from a live (presumably radio) debate about the impact of the Magna Carta. The general public were being ushered back up the Nave towards the Entrance. I took this as a sign that I should buy a ticket for the Museum and have a look at the Magna Carta.

Museum And Magna Carta

I gave it the definitive article ‘the’ Magna Carta, but there were many versions of the document. Maybe it is best to step back a bit and explain what the Magna Carta actually is. King John reigned from 1199 to 1216 and was hated by just about everybody. He was cruel, disloyal, skimmed money into his own pockets and he was rubbish at wars. This didn’t go down well with the Barons of the time, who wanted a more stable environment where they were unlikely to be killed or lose their own ill gotten gains at the whim of the King. They therefore got together and drafted a charter that was basically a declaration of rights for them. There has since been a lot of talk about this document being the foundation of democracy. Some say it influenced the U.S.A constitution by establishing the principle that the government is not above the law and that individuals have rights and protections. Obviously the current US incumbent hasn’t read their constitution. I think it is important to remember the context in which the document was written. For example, the charter refers to rights for ‘freemen’, but not many people were classed as free in 13th century England. A more inclusive term for‘freemen’ occurred over many years. Later versions of the Magna Carta included a Charter of the Forest. This additional document granted rights to commoners to use royal forests for resources like grazing, firewood and food and limited the King’s power over these lands. 

As stated above, there were many versions of Magna Carta and the version control is by date:

1215 - The original version was  annulled by Pope Innocent III almost straight away on John’s request. Four original copies of this version survive; two are held at the British Library, one at Salisbury Cathedral and one at Lincoln Cathedral. John died in 1215, but the idea of the Magna Carta didn't.

1216 - A reissue on behalf of the young King Henry III.

1217 - Another reissue including the Charter of the Forest, on behalf of the young King Henry III.

1225 - The definitive version issued by King Henry III having grown out of his nappies and being able to string words into complete sentences. It was definitive because he was not put under duress to agree to it. Four copies of this version survive.
1297 - Reissued by King Edward I. This was the version that became part of English statutory law.    

Durham Cathedral holds 3 editions of the Magna Carta: 2016, 1225 and 1300 and 3 Forest Charters. The 2016 copy is the only surviving one for that version.   

Durham’s Magna Cartas are not normally on permanent display. I happened to be lucky to visit during the Magna Carta And The North exhibition, when they were on display. If you really want to see them then I guess it is a case of checking the Cathedral’s website to see if they will be displayed as part of an exhibition. 

You have to go through the Museum to get to the Magna Carta room. Two clergy bouncers at the entrance to the Museum checked my ticket.
‘The stone crosses and statues are replicas’ he warned me as he unhooked the rope to let me through. I have to confess that I felt a bit cheated and wondered whether the Magna Carta documents might be replicas too. The Museum was in the old Monk’s Dormitory. It was a wonderful light space with exposed wooden rafters. It had been converted into a library in 1856 and there were still bookshelves along the walls. I inspected a few and decided that they looked a bit dry, for example: ‘History of Reformation in Ireland (2 volumes), Japanese Traditions Of Christianity and Library of the Fathers.  

I made my way over to the far corner where the room with the Magna Cartas was located. A female clergy bouncer relayed the instructions to get through the airlock door.
‘No photos are allowed’ she added.
I stepped through the first door and it hissed shut behind me and I waited for the second one to open as she said it would. It didn’t. A minute later the clergy bouncer opened the outer door again and asked me to step a bit forward. She disappeared with a hiss behind me and I wasn't sure whether it was the door that made the noise or an expression of her annoyance. I stepped forward a bit and the inner door opened. I was in the Magna Carta room. 

The items were really quite well presented with plenty of information boards describing what was what. The first thing I found unusual was the size of the King’s wax seal. For some reason I was expecting something smaller. Kings didn’t used to sign documents like Trump performs with a flourish nowadays; they just used a wax seal. I also expected the documents to be longer. One of the information boards gave an account of when historian Christopher Hunter (1675-1757) accidentally spilt the contents of an ink bottle on the right-hand margin of the definitive 1225 charter. Apparently he drank up to 24 cups of coffee a day which may have had something to do with it. Hunter never returned to Durham’s library. It is thought that his permission to handle any manuscripts was revoked. The ink stain was clearly visible; but I figured it could have been worse if it had run on to the main part of the document. There was only LED lighting in the room and humidity was maintained at 50%; too high and mould could grow, too dry and the parchment could shrink, wrap or crack. Having had my fill of Charters I exited the room by another double door. 

The Museum experience continued with a visit into what used to be the old Kitchen. The octagonal room was another ‘no-photo’ zone since it displayed St Cuthbert’s coffin and some of his relics. The light levels were quite low and it was difficult to read some of the information boards. The coffin was one that was made for him in 698, 11 years after his death when his body was discovered to be uncorrupt and his sainthood then recognised. A lot of the coffin was missing and it was patched together like a jigsaw. The most interesting relic was the ivory comb; it had 40 thin teeth on one side and 16 thick teeth on the other.    

I left the Museum. It had been a though provoking visit. 

Exit

I dropped into the café for some coffee and cake. After my fill, I returned to the Nave in the hope that I might return to the Quire and have a better look around, but the Magna Carta 'question time' was still going on. I listened to the debate for a while.    ‘What impact do you think the Magna Carta has had on women’s rights’ asked the male host to the only female panellist. From what I could gather from her answer, it didn’t. It did give some rights over property and marriage to heiresses and widows, but women had effectively no rights to property or anything else since they had no legal existence. 

Personally, I think the Magna Carta has to be seen as the first stepping stone on the path to democracy, freedom and rights to all individuals, rather than something that was a definitive cornerstone on its first draft, or even ‘n’th draft. 

I left the debate to run its course and exited the Cathedral. It was still a grey, sultry day. I’d enjoyed my climb to the top of the Central Tower and the views that it offered. The Museum and the Magna Cartas had been interesting too. It was a shame I’d not had more time to spend in the rest of the Cathedral, but I’d seen enough to get a flavour of the place.