Textiles in Durham Cathedral

Recently, Durham Cathedral, which does not normally allow photography inside, held an open evening for amateur photographers to come along and snap away. I've already posted about my photos of the Cathedral itself, but said at the time I'd hold back the ones of textiles for a separate post following a textile tour of the Cathedral I was booked on.  Well, the time has come!

A couple of caveats, however: the tour turned out to be of the various pieces made by the Cathedral Broderers since 1980, not all the textile collection as I'd expected, and secondly, the real treasures, including some amazingly rare Anglo-Saxon embroideries, are not currently on display due to building work, and I wouldn't have been allowed to photograph them even if they were. I hope you can still enjoy the items I did get to see.

There is a fine display of the Broderer's work in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. The pieces here were designed by Leonard Childs and Malcolm Lochhead, though I'm a bit unsure which of them was responsible for what, so apologies for that.

Firstly, there's the altar dedicated to St Margaret:

and a set of kneelers in front of it:

I haven't got them all in shot, but there are three, reading 'Wear', 'Forth', and 'Danube' - all rivers associated with St Margaret.

Additional kneelers are with a set of pews facing the altars:

There are a whole series of them, each featuring the names of saints with altars dedicated to them in the original Nine Altars. I particularly like these as I'm always interested in lettering and calligraphy in embroidery, and I think the way the designer (Leonard Childs, I think) has incorporated the saints' names is very effective.

Another kneeler, this time in front of an altar to St Hilda:

This is also part of a set of three, featuring the names of three towns - South Shields, Hartlepool and Whitby - associated with her.  The altar itself has a particularly beautiful, and deceptively simple, frontal:

In the centre is a large altar, with a spectacular frontal and panels, featuring the wildlife of Lindisfarne:

Immediately in front of the Chapel is the Shrine of St Cuthbert, which contains two large batik hangings by Thetis Blacker, of St Cuthbert:

and St Oswald, whose head is buried with St Cuthbert (I'm afraid I don't know what happened to the rest of him):

Over the steps leading into the shrine is something that might look familiar!

Another piece by the Broderers is a pulpit fall in the choir, with motifs based on designs from the Lindisfarne Gospels:

The High Altar and the other altars in the main body of the Cathedral just had plain covers at the time rather than embroidered frontals, so nothing much to see there, though there were some other interesting pieces.  None of these were made by the Broderers, however, so I'm afraid I don't have any information on them at all.

There was a rather nice processional banner for the Mothers' Union:

A hanging banner evidently commemorating a connection between Durham and Lesotho, in southern Africa:

And a large processional banner, but this time entirely secular in origin:

There was a long and proud coal mining tradition in North East England, and the annual Durham Miners Gala was a huge event in its heyday, with banners from each colliery paraded through the city.

Finally, into the Galilee Chapel, and a kneeler designed by Joan Freemen by the tomb of the Venerable Bede, also based on the Lindisfarne Gospels:

And an old and beautiful altar frontal in silk:

I don't have any information on this at all, I'm afraid, but it's just stunning.

If you're ever in the North East of England I can heartily recommend a visit to Durham Cathedral - it's well worth it.

Durham Cathedral photography evening

Durham Cathedral does not allow photography inside, but occasionally they have ticket-only photography evenings.  There was one this Thursday, and I went along.

It was a perfect summer evening, and Durham looked beautiful.

The evening was very well attended - we all spent a lot of time trying to keep out of other people's shots!

I must admit to a particular fondness for stone, particularly carved and worn stone, so a lot of my photos were of that (there's plenty to choose from in a building over 900 years old), but that tends to get a bit dull for everyone else, so I've left (most of) that out here.  I've also left out the photos I took of the various textiles on display - next month, I'm booked on a guided tour of the Cathedral's textile collection, so I'll use the pictures I took this week as part of a post on that.

There's still plenty to see, though - it's a stunning building.

The high altar and the carved stone screen behind it:

The medieval clock:

The Bishop's throne, above the ornate tomb of one of his predecessors:

And of course St Cuthbert's shrine:

There are also some striking examples of contemporary devotional art, including a huge pieta in wood in the Chapel of the Nine Altars:

While in the Galilee Chapel there's a sculpture of the Last Supper:

A piece representing the Annunciation looked stunning in the evening sunshine streaming through the windows:

The tomb of the Venerable Bede is in the Galilee Chapel, with a carved and gilded text behind it:

And a lamp hanging over it:

The Chapel also has some surviving fragments of medieval wall paintings:

The Chapel itself:

And the main body of the Cathedral, with the view down the nave:

Some carved stone:

And some more:

And the amazing Romanesque architecture:

And again:

I couldn't leave without a photo of the Sanctuary Knocker:

As I left, the bells were ringing, so with apologies for the incompetent video, I'll leave you with them.

Brocolitia and Vindolanda

Well, it's October, so of course it was the hottest day of the year here.  It's been very warm for the last few days; I'd taken a few days off work to work on the Banner, but it was far too nice to stay indoor stitching all the time, so I played hooky for a day and went for a trip to see some of the Roman remains in Northumberland.

I wasn't up for hiking and so didn't do Hadrian's Wall as such, but instead went to Brocolitia and Vindolanda.

Brocolitita, or Carrawburgh, was somewhere I'd wanted to see for ages.  It's quite isolated, and is a beautiful and magical place, disturbed only by migrating geese and RAF fighter jets flying overhead.  It's been heavily excavated, so much of what was there has been taken away to museums, but there's still the remains of the Temple of Mithras:

That's quite late Roman; much older is a shrine to a Celtic goddess, Coventina's Well.  Nothing of that now remains, but I went in search of it anyway, over a path of stone slabs over a stream:

Following the stream along, I came to a series of pools, covered in beautiful yellow flowers, and I feel sure that was the site of the spring:

The flowers didn't seem to grow anywhere else, but on my way back I saw one plant, growing by the side of the stream, next to the path:

I wish I knew what it was - can anyone identify it?

After the (mostly) peace and quiet of Brocolitia, I went to the more touristy Vindolanda.  In its heyday, this was quite a large fort with a village, or vicus, outside its gates, but is now in quite a rural setting.  Excavations have been going on for years, with some spectacular finds, including the internationally-important Vindolanda tablets - hand-written documents and letters from around the time of the building of Hadrian's Wall, in 122AD.

The most famous of these is an invitation from the camp commander's wife to another woman on site, inviting her to a birthday party - the oldest surviving handwriting by a woman anywhere - but there are hundreds of others, listing troop numbers, shoppings lists, complaints about the state of the roads, requests for recommendations for an inn to stay at - all the everyday things relating to the life of the fort.  They give a window into the lives of ordinary people in a way few archaeological finds can.

Most of the tablets are in the British Museum now, though there are a few at the very good museum at Vindolanda itself, along with a great deal else, but they don't allow photography inside it, I'm afraid.  There's still a lot to see outside too, though, such as a recreated temple, house and workshop set in a very nice garden:

There's also a recreation of how an original tower on the Wall would have looked, seen here with some of the  excavated real thing in the foreground:

From the top of the tower, you get a good view of the whole site:

While at the edge of the fort, you can see the rolling Northumbrian hills in the distance:

It was a lovely day out, and I can recommend a trip to these or the other local Roman sites to anyone visiting the North of England, though try and get weather as nice as I had!

Climbing hydrangea - and bees

Now I've got my new camera, I've discovered I really like taking pictures of flowers.  I was never very interested in it before, in my pre-camera days, but of all the trial and error snapping away that I've been doing, that's what I've enjoyed the most.

I'm pretty pleased with the results, too.  This is a climbing hydrangea, which is growing up the side wall of my yard:

Sadly, the photo can't give you any idea of the beautiful smell from all the flowers, but with the windows open (when it's warm enough!) they make the whole house smell lovely.

The flowers are very popular with bees, too.

I wonder if it's the smell that attracts them, or something else?

Now that summer's here, almost, I think a few flower-photographing trips might be in order.

Sculpture in Gateshead

As I was looking for a bit of practice with my new camera, my friend Steph suggested a trip to Gateshead riverside.  Gateshead, on the south bank of the River Tyne, have made quite a feature of public scuplture, with Antony Gormley's Angel of the North the most famous, but by no means the only, example, and there are a series of sculptures along the river bank

It was rather a rainy day, but undeterred, we headed across the river from Newcastle.  Walking down the path, the first piece we came to was Cone, by Andy Goldsworthy:

Goldsworthy's work in natural settings is always striking, and Steph's a big fan, so that was a good one to start with.

A little further along was Rolling Moon by Colin Rose:

I presume by the name that it's intended to evoke the passage of the Moon in the sky, but it also reflects the curved shapes of the iconic bridges over the Tyne.

A close up of the steel sphere:

Further down still is Goats, by Sally Matthews:

These slightly larger than lifesize recycled metal goats are foraging amongst the undergrowth up the bank:

Moving down to the road next to the river, we next saw the Thornbird Railings by Marcela Livingstone:

To me, they look like a flock of swallows.

Finally, on the way back, we headed past Rise and Fall, by Lulu Quinn:

This is filled with LED lights that light up in random patterns, but I never seemed to click the shutter at the right moment, so you'll have to take my word for that!