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 the interior of thousand-year-old Saxon church St. Brandon’s in Brancepeth, England. Temperatures reached 1200° Celsius at the height of the conflagration, melting the lead from the roof and virtually vaporizing the beautifully carved wooden interior.

The massive oak beams from the roof were the only remaining wood, and they too were so charred they may or not be datable via dendrochronology (tree ring dating).

St Brandon’s is the Parish church serving Brancepeth village and the surrounding area. It is set in the beautiful village of Brancepeth some six miles south west of Durham City. The church building has over 900 years of history, including its recent stunning restoration after a devastating fire in 1998. The now modern interior contains a display of one of the largest collection of medieval grave slabs in the north of England (discovered during the restoration) which bear a variety of beautiful cross designs.

• History of the village of Brancepeth can be found here.

After breakfast, which was was busier but less chaotic than the previous day, we drove to Raby Castle. As the weather was fair when we arrived we chose to visit the gardens and grounds. We started with the walled garden then walked around the lower lake taking in views of the castle.

When we arrived at the castle courtyard we walked around the castle perimeter to get an appreciation of it before we went inside the castle. The castle is stunning and rich with history which the knowledgeable room guides were happy to share with us as we made our way around.

We had quiche for lunch in the café before we left to visit Staindrop and the Church of St Mary where significant (historical) members of the Neville family, that once owned Raby Castle, have their tombs. There was still time to spare so we decided to visit Brancepath Church as we journeyed back to Durham. We parked just outside the driveway to the church which took us past the castle where there was a sign outside saying queue here for the 4pm tour.

I found the church amazing. It looked old from the outside and modern, light and airy from within. It had a special feel to it and I would have liked to linger longer but Mr C had his eye on the castle tour.

When we arrived at the tour joining point we found that it was for pre-booked tickets  as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme. We were lucky, two people had dropped out and we were able to join the tour that was guided by the husband of the current owner. He told us of the history of the castle and the owners. The final room that he showed us was the chapel which he advised was consecrated and used by the village when the Church had been gutted due to a fire over twenty years ago. This explains the incongruity of the Parish Church’s interior and exterior appearance.

By the time the tour had finished it was nearly 6pm and we had not been able to book an evening meal in Durham so we opted for plan B. We drove to Seaham in search of fish and chips, eventually finding them in Gills, opposite the Eleven ‘O’ One, Tommy memorial sculpture. The food was cooked to order, we dined in, eating out of a box. The Haddock that I chose melted in my mouth.

After our long day out we returned to our hotel to chill with a cup of tea in our newly acquired mugs before venturing out to the Swan for a nightcap.