… St Brandon’s Candles
During the first COVID-19 lockdown, a member of St Brandon’s Prayer Team envisioned a candle of hope as a focal point for visitors to the church.
With no end to the pandemic in sight, there was a need for both hope and peace. Remembrance Sunday and Christmas offered a reason to create a second [...]
The outside of St Brandon’s looks like many other English churches and I was surprised at what I saw when I stepped inside. The interior is stunningly beautiful but modern in contrast to the exterior. I learned that this was due to a devastating fire that almost completely destroyed the church.
In 1998 raging fire devastated [...]
St. Mary’s, formally dedicated to St. Gregory is over 1200 years old and sometimes referred to as ‘The Cathedral of the Dales’.
“Nestled in the valley between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle on the main A688, Staindrop has been described as “quite simply one of the prettiest villages in County Durham.” It stands as one of [...]
Raby Castle was built in the 14th century by the Nevill family. It was home to Cecily Nevill, mother of two kings of England, it was also the scene of the plotting of the Rising of the North and a Parliamentary stronghold during the Civil War.
Originally moated and accessed via a drawbridge, the Castle was [...]
The abbey of St Mary and St John the Baptist was founded at Egglestone between 1195 and 1198 for Premonstratensian canons. St Norbert had founded the Premonstratensian Order at Prémontré in France in 1121, adopting the rule of St Augustine and borrowing from the stricter Cistercians’ rule. The founders of Egglestone were the de Moulton [...]
Barnard Castle in Teesdale is a historic market town which takes its name from the castle around which it grew. The castle, an English Heritage property, was named after its 12th Century founder, Bernard de Balliol, and was later developed by Richard III whose boar emblem is carved above a window in the inner ward. [...]