Durham City

by David Simpson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $6.24

  Durham City is based on the 'Durham Memories' column that appears in the Northern Echo and features the history of Durham city and its surrounding suburbs. This book includes the historic city centre with all its wonderful buildings and wealth of history but also visits the city's outer reaches, where Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Crossgate Moor, Neville's cross, Gilesgate Moor and Carrville and many places besides, are explored. Throughout the book, colourful characters that have inhabited the city, such as the oversized actor Stephen Kemble, the eccentric mayor called 'Icy' Smith and a tiny man, called Joseph Boruwlaski, are recollected. Whilst on the more sinister side, the notorious inmates of Durham prison and the hangings at Dryburn are also documented. Homage is paid to the occasional shop, pub and church and of course the University of Durham, along with South road, with its nineteenth century mansions and forgotten roadside inns hidden amongst the colleges of today. The names of influential people that lived in and around the city in grand mansions such as Western Lodge, Dryburn and Springwell Hall are also uncovered.