Draft:Mountjoy, Durham
Mountjoy or Mount Joy is an escarpment approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) southeast of the city of Durham, England, rising to a height of slightly over 100 metres (330 ft).[1] Its name comes from medieval pilgrims travelling to Durham Cathedral, who would get their first close view of the cathedral after climbing the scarp. Modern pilgrims continue to use this route, and the view from the top of Mountjoy is one of the key viewpoints of the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site. The site is also associated with legends of the arrival of St Cuthbert's body in Durham. Archaeology has identified a Bronze Age enclosure and Iron Age and Romano-British field systems on Mountjoy.
Durham University's Upper Mountjoy and Lower Mountjoy sites are built on the slopes of Mountjoy.
Geography
[edit]220yds
Plantation
Elvet Colliery
pilgrimage route
enclosure
Mountjoy is described in a 2011 archaeological survey as "a prominent NE-SW escarpment which falls sharply away to the wide floodplain of the River Wear to the south-east, and to the Wear itself, looping around Durham City, only 1 km to the north-west".[1] There is an almost right angle corner in the scarp at the east end of the escarpment, where it turns from running approximately east-northeast along the south side of the escarpment to running north. There is a Victorian reservoir on the ridge at this point, identified as the highest point on the hill by the archaeological survey (the reservoir is above the 105m contour) and with a spot height of 101m on the footpath just northeast of the reservoir in a Durham University site plan.[2]
Buck's Hill
[edit]The western end of the escarpment is a plateau known as Buck's Hill. The peak of Buck's Hill is shown old Ordnance Survey maps as being the westernmost rise on the plateau, in what was once known as the Buck's Hill Plantation and is now between Grey College and Collingwood College. This matches local descriptions such as "Today, it is Durham University's Grey College and Collingwood College that dominate Bucks Hill",[3] and the description in the archaeological survey that "This is a undulating area in which two slightly more elevated knolls are separated by a north-south depression. The westernmost eminence is known as Buck Hill. The ground falls away sharply at the west end of the West Field."[1] Durham County Council planning maps also show this westernmost rise as being Buck's Hill,[4] as does the Durham University site plan.[2] This peak lies between the 100m and 105m contours.[2]
However, the modern Ordnance Survey Open Names database places Buck's Hill south and east of this, on a rise on the ridge itself. This is also the position shown for "Buck Hill, flint scatter" in the archaeological report (figure 20).[1] The height of this rise on the ridge is given as 106m in the Durham University site plan.[2]
The second of the two "elevated knolls" lies on the north side of the Buck's Hill plateau. Its height is given as 105m in the Durham University site plan. North of this, the ground fall away steeply in the Little High Wood.[2]
The A177 South Road, formerly the Great North Road, runs west of the Buck's Hill plateau, passing between Mountjoy and Windmill Hill and across the approximately 80-metre (260 ft) high Elvet Hill plateau before descending along towards the city. Hollingside Lane comes off this road, climbing the western slope of Mountjoy before turning to follow the ridge leading south from the west end of the Buck's Hill plateau.
Although the western part of Buck's Hill, containing the colleges, is topographically part of Mountjoy, it was part of Elvet Moor rather than the Mountjoy estate.[5] This division remains reflected in the boundary between the 'academic' zones of Upper and Lower Mountjoy and the 'residential' zones of the hill colleges in the Durham University Estates Masterplan.[6]
Mount Joy
[edit]From the eastern end of the Mountjoy escarpment, the scarp runs northwards and a ridge links the escarpment to a peak marked "Mountjoy" on older Ordnance Survey maps and "Mount Joy" on more recent maps, noted by the archaeological survey as "not to be confused with the site reported here". The peak lies between the 80m and 85m contours. North of this there is a deeper valley separating Mount Joy from Whinney Hill and Maiden Castle, where the A177 Stockton Road climbs the scarp at Shincliffe Peth.[2]
Great High Wood
[edit]The Great High Wood, an ancient woodland, stands on the scarp slope south and east of Mountjoy. The scarp meets the floodplain of the river Wear at an elevation of around 45m on the south side, falling to around 40m on the east side.[2] The Great High Wood joins with Maiden Castle Wood on the scarp on the north side of the A177 and with the Hollinside Wood on the scarp south of Mountjoy.
Little High Wood
[edit]The Little High Wood stands on the steep slope north of the Buck's Hill plateau in the western part of Mountjoy. There is a valley between it and the north-south ridge connecting the escarpment to the Mount Joy hill, which carries Rose Street up the hill.[2]
History
[edit]Archaeology
[edit]Archaeological excavations in 2003–7 discovered a previously unknown prehistoric site consisting of an enclosure estimated to be at least 0.75 hectares (1.9 acres) in size, with diameter within the inner ditch of around 100 metres (330 ft) and two further ditches outside this. The enclosure was in use from around 1700–1500 BC, in the final phase of the Early Bronze Age, and was abandoned around 1300 BC, in the Middle Bronze Age. It was the first site of its type to be identified in northern Britain and possibly the first Middle Bronze Age site found in north east England.[1] Early analysis had given dates as early as 3000 BC and appeared to show that the site was neither defensive nor a settlement, leading to speculation that it was a spiritual site, referred to in the press as a "prehistoric Glastonbury". However, radio carbon dating provided evidence that the site was not Neolithic, although it remained the case that its closest counterparts were late Neolithic enclosures that "probably defined ritual or ceremonial areas". It therefore provided evidence that new building following late Neolithic cultural traditions continued into the Bronze Age.[1][7]
Further excavations on Mountjoy in 2009–2020 revealed the existence of Iron Age and Romano-British field systems 150 metres (490 ft) southwest of the Bronze Age enclosure, as well as sporadic Bronze Age use of this part of the hill and Mesolithic and Neolithic flints. The components of the Iron Age field system date from 810 BC to 20 AD, after which the site artists to have been abandoned. The Romano-British field system was then created slightly east of this in the late 2nd or early 3rd century and was in turn abandoned by the 5th century.[8]
Legends of St Cuthbert
[edit]St Cuthbert was a 7th century bishop of Lindisfarne. When Lindisfarne was abandoned due to Viking raids in 875, his body was translated, among with the bishopric, to Chester-le-Street, 6 miles (10 km) north of Durham. In 995, Bishop Aldhun removed St Cuthbert's body and his community from Chester-le-Street to Ripon to avoid Viking raids. Later that year, the threat having passed, they set out to return but ended up settling at Durham instead.[9]
The 12th century scribe Symeon of Durham recounts the legend that when St Cuthbert's body was being returned from Ripon it came to a halt at "a spot near Durham called Wurdelau, on the eastern side of the city", also described as being "in the middle of a plain, which was then uninhabitable". This was interpreted as meaning the Saint did not want to be returned "to his former place of evidence". After three days of fasting, a vision revealed that St Cuthbert wanted to be taken to Dunholme (Durham) instead.[10]
The Victoria County History of Durham interprets Symeon's "near Durham" (propre Dunhelmum) as "not likely to have meant anything more distant than the immediate neighbourhood of the city of Durham" and states that local tradition associated this place with Mountjoy.[9] However, other sites have also been identified with this legend: the earlier 19th century historian James Raine states, on the basis of a marginal note by 16th century antiquary John Leland, that, if real, "the place was unquestionably Wardley, in the parish of Jarrow", 12 miles (19 km) north of Durham (with the monks returning not to Chester-le-Street but to Lindisfarne).[11] Another 19th century historian, William Fordyce, states that "antiquarians identify [the site] with Wardonlaw", a hill 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Durham, now on the outskirts of Sunderland,[12] an identification also found elsewhere.[13] It has also been placed in the area of St Oswald's Church in Elvet, on the banks of the Wear below Mountjoy.[14]
An addition to the legend, not recorded by Symeon, states that the monks transporting the body did not know where Dunholme was until they overheard one woman asking another if she had seen her dun cow and being told she had seen it "Down in Dunholme", upon which they followed her to Durham.[11][15] This encounter is said to have taken place either on Mountjoy or in the place the monks were stuck.[13][16]
Modern period
[edit]Toll houses were constructed on the roads on the west and north flanks of Mountjoy in the 1740s, following the passing of the Boroughbridge and Darlington Road Act 1744 (18 Geo. 2. c. 8), with the Butterby Lane or Elvet Moor toll at the foot of South Road, then part of the Boroughbridge – Darlington – Durham turnpike on the Great North Road, and the Yorkshire and Durham Roads Act 1746 (20 Geo. 2. c. 28), with the Elvet toll at the top of Shincliffe Peth on Stockton Road, then part of the Catterick Bridge – Yarm – Stockton-on-Tees – Durham turnpike.[17][18][19]
Elvet Moor was inclosed by the St Oswald (County Durham) Inclosure Act 1771 (11 Geo. 3. c. 99 Pr.). This mostly concerned land west of Mountjoy, but the inclosure did affect the western part of Buck's Hill. Among the areas set aside for specific uses were the Buck's Hill Plantation (now a small patch of trees between Grey College and Collingwood College) and Buck's Hill well, located where Grey College now stands in what was once known as Fountain's Field.[20]
Elvet Colliery was established on the lower slopes of Mountjoy in the 18th century and was one of the earliest in the Durham area. It closed in 1816 and a new Elvet Colliery opened in 1828. The South Engine Pit was sunk in 1858 to the Hutton seam at a depth of 62 metres (203 ft). The colliery closed in 1908, due to flooding.[21][22][23][24]
The Mountjoy estate was attached to the first prebendal stall of Durham Cathedral. Following the founding of Durham University in 1832 and the death of Thomas Gisborne, then holder of the first stall, in 1846, it was transferred from the cathedral to the university by an order in council to form part of its endowment.[25][26]
A water company was formed in 1844 and built a service reservoir at the top of Mountjoy. This was fed with filtered water pumped from the Wear above the city until 1880, when the water company was taken over and water from Waskerley, near Consett, was used instead.[27]
Pilgrim routes and walks
[edit]The Way of Life is one of the Northern Saints Trails, launched in 2021, following the route of St Cuthbert's body from its temporary rest at Gainford to Durham Cathedral. It climbs 60 metres (200 ft) from the Wear floodplain to the southeast corner of Mountjoy in a flight of 224 steps known as the Doom Steps.[28][29][30] At this point, medieval pilgrims travelling to Durham Cathedral got their first close view of the cathedral after climbing the scarp, and so named the hill "Mountjoy"[31] (cf. Monte do Gozo (Mount of Joy) where pilgrims on the French Way got their first sight of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral[32] and the Crusader's name of Mons Gaudii (Mountain of Joy) for the hill (now Nabi Samwil) where they first saw Jerusalem).[33] This view from the top of Mountjoy is now protected as one of the key viewpoints of the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site.[34] The view is framed by the trees of the Great High Wood and the Little High Wood and, in addition to Mountjoy's associations with pilgrimage and the legends of St Cuthbert's arrival in Durham, clearly shows the architectural innovation of the cathedral and castle and the relationship between these two main components of the world heritage site, as well as containing other heritage assets such as St Oswald's Church and St Nicholas' Church. It has been assessed as a high value view of national or regional importance.[35]
From this high point, the path descends north down the ridge along Bluebell Lane, then turns west of Mount Joy hill to cross the A177 Stockton Road by the entrance to Durham University's Lower Mountjoy site.[36] The same route over Mountjoy is followed by a section of the Finchale Camino Inglés, part of the Camino de Santiago established in 2019, between Durham and Bishop Auckland.[37][38][39] Mountjoy is also included as one of the hills on the Durham City Seven Hills Trail,[40] and in two of The Times' "Times Walks".[41][42]
University
[edit]Durham University's Mountjoy site (formerly the Science site) contains many of the university's departments, including all of the departments in the faculty of science and most of the departments in the faculty of social science and health. The site is divided into Lower Mountjoy, in the corner corner by the A177 Stockton Road and three A177 South Road on the lower slopes of the escarpment, and Upper Mountjoy, on the plateau near the top of the apartment, separated from Lower Mountjoy by the Little High Wood. The very western extremity of Mountjoy is home to two of the university's colleges: Grey College on the north side and Collingwood College on the south side.
Lower Mountjoy
[edit]Development of what is now Lower Mountjoy began in 1923 with the Dawson Building (originally the Science Building until 1952, when it was named after Sir Arthur James Dawson, a northeast educator). This building is now home to the departments of archaeology and anthropology, but has also housed chemistry, geology, physics, biology, botany and zoology.[43] Later 20th century development included the Chemistry Building (chemistry), the Maths building (temporary home of the school of education),[44] the West Building (geography), the Rochester Building (physics, named after George Rochester, Professor of Physics), the Christopherson Building (engineering, named after Derman Christopherson, vice-chancellor and warden 1960–1979), the Higginson Building (engineering, named after Gordon Higginson, Professor of Engineering), and the Bill Bryson Library (named after the writer Bill Bryson, chancellor of the university 2005–2012),[45][46]
Development in the 21st century has included the Arthur Holmes Building (2003; earth sciences; named after Arthur Holmes, Professor of Geology),[47] the Calman Learning Centre (2007; named after Kenneth Calman, vice-chancellor and warden 1998–2006),[48] the Palatine Centre (2012; law and the university's administration),[49] the Daniel Libeskind-designed Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics (2016),[50] and the Lower Mountjoy Teaching and Learning Centre (2019), the only part of the site west of South Road.[45] In October 2013, a geological sculpture of the British Isles titled What Lies Beneath Us – a map with the geology of each location shown by a sample of the rock found at that location (and, for most areas, from that location) – by artist John de Pauley was unveiled by Iain Stewart at the pedestrian entrance to Lower Mountjoy at the junction of South Road and Stockton Road, near the Bill Bryson Library.[51]
Upper Mountjoy
[edit]Development of the Upper Mountjoy site started with construction of the psychology building in 1970,[52] followed by the Mountjoy Research Centre, built in 1984 as an enterprise centre for knowledge-based enterprises in collaboration with developers English Estates. This opened in 1986 with the university's Industrial Research Laboratories being the first tenants, and soon included a more diverse range of businesses than traditional science parks, including David Bellamy's ecological consultancy, property developers specialising in conservation projects, and forensic scientists.[53][54] and the biological sciences building in 1993 (now biosciences).[55] The mathematical sciences and computer sciences building opened in 2021 and also includes the Hazan Venture Lab, intended to equip students for entrepreneurship and to encourage student start-ups.[45][56] The local NHS administrative offices are also located in John Snow House in Upper Mountjoy.[57][58]
Large lecture theatres with a capacity of over 200 on the Mountjoy site include Applebey (West Building; capacity 275; named after Malcolm Applebey, chair of the Durham Colleges Council 1937–1955);[59] Scarbrough (Chemistry Building; capacity 264; named after Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough, chancellor of the university 1958–1969);[59] Dawson (Dawson Building; capacity 228);[59] the Calman Learning Centre lecture theatres: Arnold Wolfendate (capacity 400, named after Sir Arnold Wolfendale, Astronomer Royal and Professor of Physics), Rosemary Cramp (capacity 260, named after Dame Rosemary Cramp, first female professor at the university and Professor of Archaeology) and Ken Wade (capacity 260, named after Kenneth Wade, Professor of Chemistry);[59][60] and the 250 and 500 capacity Lower Mountjoy Teaching and Learning Centre lecture theatres.[61]
References
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- ^ Mark Tallentire (10 July 2007). "Unearthing history at 'prehistoric Glastonbury'". The Northern Echo.
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- ^ a b Page, William; Cookson, Gillian (1905). The Victoria history of the county of Durham. Vol. 2. pp. 5–8.
- ^ G. Seeley (1855). "Simeon's history of the church of Durham Chap. XXXVI – How Aldune conveyed the Body of St. Cuthbert to Rippun; and how he afterwards come from Wurdelau to Durham; and of the Names of those who carried him". The Church Historians of England. pp. 671–672.
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- ^ William Fordyce (1857). The history and antiquities of the county palatine of Durham. Vol. 1. A. Fullerton & Co. p. 24.
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Key viewpoints are at Whinney Hill, Mountjoy, Observatory Hill and Crook Hall.
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