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Published: August 23rd 2009
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Hey Yizzall!
As promised here is the second part of my week of study in Durham. You must be wondering what the heck flushin’ roulette is. Well the plumbing in the UK is quite different from what we’re used to at home. The bathroom on our floor was a little temperamental and you had to keep flushing it until it caught and flushed. It was always an adventure as to how many times you’d have to flush until it went down and it was even more exciting when the toilet caught in less than five flushes. So there you have it: Flushin’ Roulette was born and coined by my friend Anna.
Wednesday we ventured off to Escomb Church, Hexam Abbey and Bede’s World. That’s right folks, Bede’s Wold. Escomb church was built in the late 7th century and was a stone building surrounded by a graveyard. There is even speculation that it was a monastery because of the building materials. I’m learning quite a bit about what the architecture of a building can tell you about its history. There are two different size windows in the this building and the smaller ones were most likely the original windows and
the larger ones were added round about the 14th century. Cool right? Right. Whereas Escomb was rather small Hexam Abby was really large. It was beautiful with its large stained glass windows large alter and above ground crypts with knights and other people carved on the tops. In it we also saw the bishops throne, which was the size of an ottoman and pretty much a large concrete block with a scoop in the middle with a little pillow sitting in it. Definitely not an extravagant piece of furniture. We also went into the underground crypt of St. Andrew. The steps leaded down were really steep. I’m not the tallest or the most graceful person, so I thought I was going to totally bite it and that would have been BAD. I might’ve totally broken something and taken the people in front of me with me. Luckily I didn’t trip or anything (thank God). So the crypt was really interesting and dark. Of course we took pictures down there and weren’t supposed to (no surprise there). Back in the day you would go down there with fear and trembling and come up spiritually awed. Now Bede’s world was the bomb.
It is a museum dedicated and named for the Venerable Bede who is the 7th century author of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (try saying that 3 times fast 😊). It had models of what life may have been like in the time of Bede and even had farm aminals (yes, aminals)! There were sheep, which the westen kids were “talking” to the sheep. That was amusing. Now the best part was that they had monks robes. We took pictures in them and next to the enormous statue of Bede. Too much fun.
Thursday we stayed in Durham and walked around the city. We took a tour of Durham Cathedral, which I mentioned in the last blog. It is HUUUGGGEEE. There is this large door knocker that people seeking asylum from lynch mobs (or as Dr. Lomas calls them “ neck-tie parties” LOL) would enter the church. We went inside and it is spectacular but of course they didn’t allow flash photography. We saw the tombs of St. Cuthbert and Bede. Old St. Cuthbert had his own raised alter-type this with the sliced of head of King Oswald, which is kind of random to me but to
each his own. Bede is in Galilee chapel which is added on to the west end of the cathedral which was originally the entrance. On the east end is the Chapel of the 9 Alters which they built so that multiple monks/priests could do mass. It was totally beautiful. The outside area of the cathedral was the quad in the Harry Potter movies. We couldn’t go into the Durham Castle that day because they were having a wedding there.
Friday was castle day. We went to Warkworth and Edlingham. They were both circa 13th century ruins. The lesson was to show how these castles, which were intended to be towns, were able to defend themselves from foreign invaders. They were still very impressive and I was thinking that they were quite glorious in their heyday. There you have it folks. The Durham Chronicles. *takes bow* As, one of my favorite professors and Mr. Spock would say, “Live Long and Proooossspppeerrrr”
Peace and Blessings,
~SC
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J.. Herbert Nelson
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Wow!
The list is too long to write here, but I'M sure you know that.