Harry Potter in Durham Cathedral, A Place of Many Changes

Following last week’s post, we continue with the second most prominent location used to stage the wizard school Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. Appearing in the first three movies of the franchise, this cathedral from the northern part of England was used not only for exterior shots like Alnwick Castle but also for interior shots.

Pre-Cathedral

This cathedral was built in a city called Durham (obviously), as Bishop Aldhun consecrated the area. Any non-religious person, like me, knows that “consecrating” a place is pretty much declaring it holy ground. This was done to house the remains of Saint Cuthbert from the Danes. Great Britain was still in the process of suffering an existential crisis from the Danelaw and, therefore, became a prime ground for raids. This proved to be somewhat effective, and Wessex would ultimately expel the Danes from Great Britain shortly after anyways. All was well until a certain Norman Conqueror crashed the place and built the originally named Durham Castle we can still enjoy today.

The Cathedral

We would need to wait another century or so before the construction of the cathedral began. It was built to replace the old ‘White Church” that used to occupy the area under the order of Bishop William of St. Calais. He also installed his own monks after nicely telling the previous order to make room (aka, he evicted them). The construction roughly took 40 years, and while William funded the cathedral himself, all other expenses were taken care of by the monks. Once finished, it housed the remains of Saint Cuthbert as planned, even if, by this time, not a whole lot remained, considering the guy died almost 600 years before that. The saint was joined by a fellow religious figure known as Bede the Venerable, mostly known for his historical writing. Again, there was probably nothing much left to bury since he died in 735, more than 300 years before. Oh, and fun fact, it was the first building in Europe to use a structure known as “Ribbed Vaulting” for its ceiling.

Transition to Anglicanism

Durham Cathedral’s existence continued relatively peacefully, with some additions and upgrades from time to time. This came to an end abruptly when everybody’s “favourite” Tudor monarch, Henry VIII, had a little quarrel with the Pope and ended up creating the Anglican church so he could divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (hey, this one at least survived). Henry dissolved the current order in 1538 and destroyed the altars of the two figures entombed while the ‘remains’ were put in common graves. Saint Cuthbert’s body was strangely found well-preserved. It was claimed that the body was ‘uncorrupted’ and a further sign of the Saint status of Cuthbert. Although, atheists can wonder whose body they found. And for anyone thinking he must have been mummified, well it was called embalming in Europe. However, it must have been a secret since he kept his title of “uncorrupted”.

Prison

Yes, you read the sub-title correctly. Durham Cathedral was, for a time, a prison. During one of the many, many, civil wars that hit England, Oliver Cromwell turned it into a makeshift prison after beating the crap out of the Scottish at Dunbar. For those wondering who Cromwell was, let’s say he was a key figure in the annexation of Scotland by England. Many Scottish captured in the battle were imprisoned here. This being the 17th century, the living conditions there would make most modern prisons look like a 5-star hotels. Much of the Cathedral would be destroyed, mainly by the prisoners cannibalizing the woodwork to keep themselves warm. After some time, all surviving prisoners, being less than half the initial population, were then sent to the American colonies to work as a volunteer workforce (read: slaves).

After this, Bishop John Cosin would take it upon himself to restore the cathedral. This little misadventure with the Scots would mark the last major event the cathedral would see, with the rest of its existence being marked by rather boring modifications like removing an organ (no, not that one!)

Stay tuned and follow me! My next story is about the third and fourth major locations that served as the setting for Hogwarts, the Lacok Abbey and New College!