nwatkins23

Doors of the UK – Durham Part 1

The medieval city centre of Durham has enough interesting doors to warrant its own series of door images.

Durham Cathedral is situated in the heart of the City of Durham, and it is a pilgrimage destination for thousands of visitors to north-east England, many who come to visit the shrine of St. Cuthbert. The cathedral started construction in 1093, during the early years of the Norman conquest. The Bishops of Durham were known as prince-bishops, which meant that they had civil authorities in addition to their ecclesiastical role. This included the right to levy taxes and duties, administer their own laws, and raise their own armies. There was no division of authority between the church and the state in this region until Henry VIII became king and diminished the power of the bishops.

Durham Cathedral was built in the Romanesque style and still retains many of these features. These architectural features include the use of semi-circular arches and chevron decoration of the stonework, both of which can be seen in these first two images. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the cathedral, so you will have to make a personal visit to see what lies behind these grand doors.

d32-Durham cathedral side entry cw — Durham Cathedral side entrance

d32-Durham cathedral front entry cw — Durham Cathedral main entrance

The cathedral and much of the surrounding area has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This includes Durham Castle and Durham University. Theological teaching began in Durham during the reign of Henry VIII, and the University of Durham was officially recognized as a university in 1832 – the third oldest in England after Oxford and Cambridge.

There are several doors that face onto the Palace green, located between the cathedral and the castle, some of which are shown in the following images. These are my contributions to this week’s Thursday Doors, hosted by Norm Frampton. See the links on Norm’s blog site for other door contributors.

d32-Durham university library cw — Durham University Library

d32-elevenses cw — elevenses outside the library

d32-the bishops library cw — the bishop’s library

Doors of the UK – the NYMR

Doors, photography

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs across the North Yorkshire Moors between Pickering and Whitby and it is a very popular tourist attraction in North Yorkshire. The railway is a great place to visit for all (former and present) model railway enthusiasts who wish to experience a full-scale version of old train locomotives, carriages and stations.

This railway is owned and operated by the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust, which is a not-for-profit charitable organisation. Daily operation is carried out by a team of paid staff alongside many volunteers with railway operations and business experience. The railway trust marked its 50th anniversary of operations in 2017, while the railway line has actually been in operation since 1836. It is the largest preserved heritage railway in the UK in terms of route mileage operated and passenger numbers.

The NYMR owns and operates the railway line from Pickering to Grosmont, and extends its train services from Grosmont to Whitby on the east coast over the Network Rail line. Many varieties of rolling stock are used on the line, including steam and diesel locomotives, and vintage carriages. The NYMR own and restore much of the stock, in partnership with the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway) Coach Association, which provides an umbrella organization for privately and corporately owned vehicles that are used on the NYMR. Imagine owning, restoring and operating your own full-scale railway carriage or engine!

d31-NYMR engineer cw — engineer on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Some images of a few doors shot during a recent visit to the NYMR are included in this post as my contribution to Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors blog for this week. The first two green doors are from similar carriages in various states of repair. The train guard – also known as the conductor or train manager – is responsible for the safety of the train.

d31-guard door 1 cw — green guard door 1

d31-guard door 2 cw — green guard door 2

This brown carriage door is from one of the restored heritage teak carriages, originally built in 1935.

d31-teak carriage cw — teak carriage door

This second pair of green doors is attached to a small building located on the station platform in Pickering. Both doors are signed “private” – one door is an electrical room – but I don’t know the purpose of the other. The purpose for the red buckets is clearly understood, although water and electricity don’t mix well.

There are four stations located along the NYMR line between Pickering and Grosmont. Each station has been restored to reflect various periods in the history of the line. One of the train stations is at Goathland, which has been used as a set in various movies and TV programs. Viewers of “Heartbeat” will know the village of Goathland as Aidensfield. The doors of the Aidensfield Garage and Scripps Funeral Services are shown here. It now serves as a souvenir shop.

d31-aidensfield garage cw — the Aidensfield Garage

The Devil’s Door

Doors, photography

Early Anglo-Saxon churches in the UK often had a north door entrance to the nave of the church. Although not considered to be significant at the time, later medieval superstitions led to the north door of a church being known as “The Devil’s Door.”

The Devil’s Door was intended to be left open during any infant baptisms in the church, so that any evil spirits could escape as the child was christened. In medieval times, the north side of the church was considered to be the “sinister” side (Latin: sinestre = left), the side where the evil spirits could hide in the shadows of the building. Following the Reformation (1530s), many of these doors were removed or blocked up.

The north side of a church yard had similar connotations, as it was sometimes used for the burial of suicides, criminals, and infants who had not been baptised.

I learned all of this while visitng Escomb Saxon Church near Bishop Auckland, England. Escomb Church is considered to be the best preserved Anglo-Saxon church in England. The following images of the church are my contribution to this week’s Thursday Doors blog, published by Norm Frampton.

d30-the devils door cw — the devil’s door

d30-the north wall cw — the north exterior wall

d30-escomb church cw — the south entry to Escomb Saxon Church

d30-escomb church interior cw — interior of Escomb Saxon Church

Photo for the Week – Paths

photography, Weekly Challenges

These images were inspired by the RyanPhotography weekly challenge Photo for the Week #15 – Paths.

Five years ago we walked the Cotswold Way in the west of England. We hiked the route at a leisurely pace, taking 13 days to travel from Chipping Campden to Bath. The footpaths were varied and undulating and there were some great vistas along the way.

I have added some enhancements to these photos using my ON1 Photo Raw processing software to evoke the mood of each day.

PFTW-15-Paths-Cotswold way 1 cw — the Cotswold Way – day 10

PFTW-15-Paths-Cotswold way 2 cw — the Cotswold Way – day 12

Doors of the UK – Church Doors

Doors, photography

Our recent trip to the UK included visits to many older churches. One of our first stops was at the Kilmartin House Museum, located south of Oban on the west coast of Scotland. This museum displays some of the 5,000 years of human history in this area, and is well worth a visit. The Kilmartin Parish Church is next door to the museum. The purple church doors were attractive, while the sign “To the Stones” was intriguing. Alas, not the Rolling Stones, but the stones that were on display in the graveyard included a well-preserved collection of early grave slabs. Two late-medieval grave slabs with interesting geometric designs are illustrated here.

d29-kilmartin church cw — Kilmartin Parish Church

d29-grave slabs cw — early 18th Century grave slabs

Travelling north-west from Oban we visited the island of Iona and the Iona Abbey. The abbey is located on the site of the original monastery established by Columba, who arrived here from Ireland in AD 563. The Book of Kells was started by the monks of Iona, before they had to retreat to Ireland to escape Viking raids.

Next door to the abbey is St. Oran’s Chapel, a simple church structure that was orignally built around 1150. The Romanesque arched doorway is original, although the chapel was abandoned for 100’s of years, and was only recently restored at the same time as the abbey. Surrounding the chapel is Relig Odhráin (Gaelic for Oban), which is a graveyard that has been used for over 1,400 years. Iona is the symbolic centre of Scottish Christianity, and many Scottish kings have been buried in this graveyard.

d29-st oran's chapel cw — St. Oran’s Chapel

d29-st oran's door cw — St. Oran’s Chapel door

Hexham Abbey is another site of an early Anglo-Saxon monastery, founded in the old Kingdom of Northumbria in AD 674-8 by St. Wilfrid. The abbey is located in Hexham, England, in proximity to Hadrian’s Wall. The only remaining portion of the original monastery is the crypt, which is lined with stones recycled from a nearby abandoned Roman fort.

Hexham Abbey doorway

d29-the crypt cw — the view from the crypt at Hexham Abbey

This is my contribution to Norm’s Thursday Doors for the week of October 18. To see what other contributors have posted, check out Norm’s blog post here.

Beneath the Columns

Monochrome, photography, Weekly Challenges

I have been waiting for an opportunity to post a couple of images that include people and columns. Columns are obviously an essential element in the design of structures. In classical and neo-classical architecture, decorative columns were used to identify the main entry to a building, which was usually raised above street level, requiring steps to reach the entrance. The steps and the spaces beneath and between the columns have become places for people, who are often dwarfed by the scale and immensity of the columns. These are great places for people to gather and people-watch.

Today’s post was inspired by the Photo for the Week Photography Challenge, posted by RyanPhotography, on the topic of columns.

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