A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



At some point in the journey the impregnable 

 character of the peninsula was doubtless pointed 

 out, and there it was determined to defend the 

 saint's body and to make the place an abiding 

 home without fear of Danish molestation. The 

 legend of the car immovable, of the vision from 

 heaven, of the wait for three days, will then 

 resolve itself into an allegory concerning the 

 debate, the doubts, the decision which led to 

 the transfer of St. Cuthbert to Durham. We 

 may perhaps reread the account of the momentous 

 decision as follows. The two principal actors 

 are certainly Aldhun, the Bishop of Chester-le- 

 Street, head of the congregation of St. Cuthbert, 

 and Uchtred, who rather later became Earl of 

 Northumbria. The latter was now or afterwards 

 the bishop's son-in-law, and appears to have 

 acted as vicegerent to his aged father. Earl 

 Waltheof. When the congregation set out to 

 Ripon in the spring of 995 various manors, 

 parcel of the patrimony of St. Cuthbert, were, 

 during the present necessity, committed to the 

 care of Uchtred and his father.^" Elvet may 

 have been one of these, but it is not included in 

 the imperfect list of Simeon.^* It is, at all 

 events, no unlikely conjecture that on the return 

 journey a few months later some agreement was 

 reached between the bishop and Uchtred. 

 The precious body of St. Cuthbert was far too 

 valuable an asset to run the risk of its being 

 sent on further wanderings at the appearance 

 of the next band of Svvegn's followers. Close 

 to Elvet, and well known to all who passed 

 to and fro along South Street, was the rocky 

 fortress of Dun holm, as it was probably called 

 at this time.'^^ No more inviolable sanctuary 

 could have been chosen than this fastness. A 

 political reason has been suggested as an 

 additional motive in the choice at this time. 

 It has been pointed out that the selection was 

 due not merely to reverence and interest in the 

 possession of St. Cuthbert's body, but to the 

 need of a new capital more to the south of the 

 Northumbrian dominions at a moment when 

 those dominions had been cut short by the 

 comparatively recent cession of Cumbria to the 

 Scots.^' 



The site of the new city had now been chosen, 

 and no time was lost in erecting the buildings 

 necessary for the congregation of St. Cuthbert. 

 First and foremost a small wattled church was 

 built where the saint's body was placed, a spot 

 which tradition has identified with St. Mary-le- 

 Bow in the North Bailey, but at all events the 

 reputed scene of a cure which carried far and 



*" Simeon of Dur. op. cit. i, 83. 21 11,1^^ 



22 The famous dun cow legend has not, so far, been 

 traced beyond the i6th century. See Rites of Dur. 

 (Surr. Soc), 254. 



23 See F.C.H. Dur. ii, 133-4. 



wide the fame of the new sanctuary, and gave 

 Durham a notoriety which only grew as years 

 passed on. But, whatever the exact site of 

 this small shrine, it was only in use for a few 

 days, and then the body was transferred to 

 another church, known as the Alba Ecclesia, 

 in which it rested for three years. This period 

 was employed in extensive building operations 

 under the direction of Aldhun with the help 

 of Uchtred, to whom was due a levy of the 

 whole population. Under apparently forced 

 service^ they cut down all the wood on the 

 peninsula, and built houses for the various 

 members of the congregation, to whom they 

 were assigned by lot. This done, the larger 

 church was begun and was pressed on with all 

 the zealous care of the bishop and his helpers. 

 It was completed before the year 998 ran out, 

 and on 4 September was dedicated with every 

 manifestation of joy in the presence of a large 

 concourse of the widespread levy which had 

 helped in the building. It was soon after this 

 that the cure mentioned above took place, and 

 was regarded as a special sign of divine appro- 

 bation bestowed upon the saint's new resting- 

 place. The cure had the effect of constituting 

 Durham a place of pilgrimage as widely sought 

 as Chester-le-Street had been. The sanctuary 

 privileges which had grown up at Lindisfarne 

 and at Chester-le-Street were undoubtedly 

 confirmed to Durham, though no express men- 

 tion of them is made by Simeon, since we shall 

 find them confirmed, not granted, by 11th- 

 century kings. In this way the earliest buildings 

 were erected and the influence of Durham 

 began. 



There is no mention of walls and fortifications 

 so far ; Simeon speaks of the place as ' naturally 

 fortified.' With the recrudescence of Danish 

 fury after the massacre of St. Brice at the end of 

 1002, it doubtless became necessary to strengthen 

 these natural defences. The danger indeed to 

 the infant city was twofold, since Scots as 

 well as Danes menaced the district. In 1006, 

 apparently, Durham was invested by the Scots, 

 but by this time the position was fenced with 

 ramparts throughout its whole circuit, and was 

 relieved by the strategic skill of Uchtred, the 

 bishop's son-in-law. The Scots, however, driven 

 out of Northumbria at this time, were victorious 

 in the important fight at Carham in 1018, 

 when ' the people of St. Cuthbert ' were anni- 

 hilated. The disaster broke the heart of 

 Bishop Aldhun, who despaired of any recovery 

 of the former prosperity of his see. At his 

 death in 1019 the western tower alone of his 

 church was unfinished. But Aldhun's sad 

 prophecy of the permanent desolation of the 

 place was not fulfilled. The conversion of 



-* Simeon of Dur. op. cit. i, 81. 



