The misericords and history of Durham Cathedral

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The Misericords and history of Durham Cathedral,

Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham.

Chichester Cathedral has thirty seven, late 17th century misericords.

Please launch the complete misericord description page here

Please click on the thumbnail misericords for larger images.

History of Durham Cathedral, County Durham.

In 995 AD, when the bishopric was created there was already a 10th century Benedictine Priory church, known as the “White Church”, this was replaced when the current Durham Cathedral was founded in 1093 - which was mostly completed in just 40 years. What we see today is over 90% original, making it the most complete Romanesque cathedral in England, this is important enough for it to have been made a UNESCO World Heritage site. This Cathedral was built specifically to house a shrine to St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
It is interesting to note that in all of the centuries up to the reformation, the priory was never elevated to abbey status, the only reason I can think of, is that an abbot has the status of “Prince of the Church” which would have caused a political conflict with the Price Bishop.
The Galilee Chapel was added in the late 12th century, this served as the lady chapel. In the early 13th century, the east end, which had suffered from subsidence and major cracking was in desperate need of repair, and so a new eastern terminal was designed and added. During this period all three towers were built. The central crossing tower, was hit by lightening - not an unusual occurrence, and was replace in two building phases during the 15th century.
The dissolution brought less than the usual chaos, as the priory surrendered in 1540. When Durham Cathedral was reformed in 1541, the Prior became the first Dean, whilst 12 of the former monks became the first Canons.
The Civil War and Commonwealth, on the other hand was not a nice time for the Cathedral. Cromwell closed the Cathedral and used it to house 3000, Scottish, prisoners - maybe this is not as bad as Limerick Cathedral - but still not good. The restoration in 1660 brought the Cathedral back to life - enough so, that a major refurbishment project was carried out in the late 17th century, which included the choir stalls and their misericords, all of which had been destroyed during the Commonwealth. Although the misericords are almost certainly not copies of the original medieval misericords, the subject matter does lean heavily on medieval folk lore and more than one misericord shows leanings to the “Green Man”. It is also interesting to note that the misericords do not have supporters - an unusual case for British misericords of so late a period, perhaps this harps back to the style of misericords that were originally at Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral’s Official Website