A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



splayed stone seats, one on either side, formed 

 by running down the inner jambs some 2 ft. 

 6 in. below the outer sill ; this also occurs in 

 the north-west windows. Since the removal of 

 Cosin's panelling these windows have been 

 altered and the sills lowered. 



The north window was inserted in 1847. It 

 is said to occupy the position of a large window 

 by Bishop Hatfield which was possibly unused 

 from the time of Bishop Cosin or Bishop Neile, 

 when rooms were inserted at the north end of 

 the hall. The window is pointed and has four 

 lights with geometrical tracery. The appear- 

 ance is heavy, but the glass inserted in 1882 

 is by Kempe and is good. It displays, on a 

 groundwork of foliage, the arms of many 

 associated with the castle and the foundation of 

 the University.*^ 



Hatfield is said to have renewed the roof 

 with richly ornamented roof timbers, no trace 

 of which remains.*^ There exists a contract 

 by which the carpenter undertook to save the 

 old timber for re-use, indicating perhaps that 

 a very considerable portion of Bishop Bek's hall 

 was rebuilt.'" He also erected a ' throne ' or 

 * princely seat ' at each end of the hall. 



Bishop Fox constructed the present south cross 

 wall** and inserted two doorways at either end of 

 the wall, which from a plan of about 1775 

 apparently entered two separate apartments. 

 These doorways have square splayed inner 

 orders with four centred segmental arches in 

 square heads and sunk eyelets in the spandrels ; 

 the jambs are stopped at the bottom. The two 

 doorways are now connected with a cavetto hood 

 mould running along the wall above the heads 

 and returned down the outer end of each door 

 head. Two carvings of a ' Pelican in piety,' the 

 bishop's badge, are inserted near the inner 



** At the bottom of the window are four figures 

 holding banners bearing arms representing (from east 

 to west) Bishop Hatfield, St. George, St. Cuthbert, 

 Bishop Fox. Immediately above, the shields of 

 Tunstall, Cosin, Crewe, and Butler. Above these 

 in the two centre lights are the arms of six visitors, 

 viz : — Bishops Van Mildert, Maltby, Langley, Villiers, 

 Baring and Lightfoot. In the upper portion of the 

 east light are shields referring to three Masters, 

 namely, the arms of Plummer and Booth and the 

 initials of Waite, and in the west light the arms of 

 the three Wardens Thorpe, Waddington and Lake. 

 The east and west tracery hghts display the arms of the 

 Bishoprics of York and Durham respectively, and, 

 surmounting all, the arms of the University. 



*2 A picture by Hastings hanging in the hall shows 

 the principals ornamented with bold cusping, and the 

 spandrils filled with similar decoration ; this was 

 probably destroyed by Barrington, who replaced the 

 old struts with larger ones and inserted the corbels 

 under wall pieces 



*3 Dur. Rec. cl. 3, R. 30, m. 5 d. 



** Hijt. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 150. 



jambs of the doors under the hood mould. The 

 two semicircular corbelled musicians' or trum- 

 peters' galleries on the east and west walls at 

 the south end were originally approached from 

 adjacent newel staircases, portions of which still 

 remain. These galleries are usually ascribed to 

 Bishop Fox,*° but whether they are his work is 

 doubtful ; they seem to be more in keeping 

 with Bishop Hatfield's time and arc probably 

 a part of his greater scheme. The portion 

 of the hall cut off at the south end he 

 divided into various apartments, constructing 

 a timber-framed house within the existing walls. 

 These apartments on the ground floor are now 

 used as the servants' hall and a bed and sitting- 

 room. Fox's alterations caused the removal of 

 the ' throne ' *' from the lower end of the hall 

 and the building up of the south window. The 

 large open arched recessed fireplace in the west 

 wall, between two of Bek's exterior buttresses, 

 was probably inserted at this time. 



Bishop Neile (1617-28) is stated to have 

 further reduced the length of the hall" by the 

 construction of a set of rooms at the north end 

 of the hall which are supposed to have been 

 entered from a turret stair erected by Tunstall 

 at the west end of his gallery.** 



Bishop Cosin (1660-72) did a considerable 

 amount of work on the hall. He is said to have 

 formed an audience chamber at the north end, 

 possibly inside Neile's partition wall.*" He also 

 cut away a portion of the east wall of the hall 

 when erecting his great staircase, and built a 

 timber partition to avoid too great a projection 

 into the courtyard. Cosin also erected a ' screen 

 of wainscot ' at the south end of the hall and 

 panelled the walls. Nothing of this work is left 

 except possibly the double doors under the 

 present gallery.^" Bishop Cosin also built the 

 porch covering Bishop Bek's doorway, and the 



*5 Chambre, Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. 

 Soc), p. 150. The position of the galleries, however, 

 points to their being part of Bishop Hatfield's scheme 

 for the larger hall, and the wall openings may quite well 

 be of his time. 



*' Ibid. The timber-framed house probably means 

 the buttery. 



*' Wood, Athenae O.xon. i, 665. 



** Doubts have been cast on the existence of this 

 staircase. 



*" Hutchinson, op. cit. ii, 369 note. A picture in 

 the castle shows a chimney on the roof of the hall near 

 the north end, indicating that the division wall was 

 not merely a timber partition. These rooms were 

 removed, and the wall thus extended to its original 

 length, shortly after the castle passed into the hands 

 of the University in 1847. 



^o Cosin's panelling and screen are shown in a 

 picture by Hastings hanging in the Great Hall. It is 

 not known when the panelling and screen were 

 removed. During the early part of the University's 

 occupation the walls appear to have been bare. 



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