The Legend of the Durham Dun Cow

On the outside of Durham Cathedral is a sculpted panel which depicts a cow, a milkmaid and a man in monk-like robes. At first glance this seems to be a rather odd sculpture to adorn the side of a cathedral, but it was inspired by a legend about the founding of the cathedral.

The legend in question is that the location where the city of Durham and the cathedral were founded in 995 AD were selected by a band of wandering monks, following some help from a long-dead saint and a lost cow.

The story of the founding of Durham Cathedral really starts on the island of Lindisfarne in 687 AD with the death of a monk called Cuthbert. 11 years after his death, in 698 AD, Cuthbert's tomb was opened and it was discovered that his body had not been corrupted by the passage of time. This miraculous preservation of Cuthbert’s body led to his tomb becoming a place of pilgrimage, and it was not long before visiting pilgrims began to report miracles occurring during their visits to Cuthbert’s tomb. Unsurprisingly this level of fame ultimately led to Cuthbert being canonised, and the remains of Saint Cuthbert became important relics.

793 AD saw the first Viking raid on the Monastery on Lindisfarne, and over the following decades the threat of further raids was ever present. Having had enough of being under threat, in 875 AD the monks of Lindisfarne finally decided to quit the island and to find a less risky place to conduct their worship. Fleeing with their most important possessions, which included the relics of Saint Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne gospels, the monks are said to have wandered homeless for seven years until 883 AD when they settled in Chester-le-Street (7 miles due north of present day Durham). Their stay at Chester-le-Street was not to be a permanent one however, and further threats of invasion saw the monks and the remains of Saint Cuthbert on the move again, this time to Ripon. Eventually it was decided by the monks to return to Chester-le-Street, and it is during this return journey in 995 AD that the long-dead Saint Cuthbert and a lost cow conspired to steer the monks towards the location of present-day Durham.

During the monk’s passage north, back towards Chester-le-Street, it is said that Saint Cuthbert’s coffin came to a miraculous halt, and despite the best efforts of the monks it could not be made to move. During this period of immobility it is said that a monk called Eadmer had a vision in which Saint Cuthbert appeared to him and said that his remains should be taken to a place called “Dun-holm”. Following Eadmer’s vision the coffin could miraculously be moved again, however none of the monks had ever heard of a place called Dun-holm, and so had no idea where to go. As luck would have it, the monks happened across a milkmaid who was looking for her lost dun (dull brownish grey) cow, which she had apparently last seen at Dun-holm. Realising their luck, the monks accompanied this milkmaid to Dun-holm and began to create an early cathedral at the site. This early cathedral was to become the first building in the city that is now Durham.

Durham Cathedral - which is also the resting place of the Durham Dwarf. 

The sculpture of the dun cow from a distance.

Close up. 

Dun Cow Lane near the cathedral - note that the corner of the building has been chamfered. Presumably this is to prevent damage to the building by vehicles trying to make the tight turn.

A Durham statue showing the monks carrying St Cuthbert's remains towards the location of the cathedral.

For Lego lovers - inside the cathedral there is a fund raising project to help support the up-keep of the cathedral, which apparently costs £60,000 a week to run. This project is the construction of a replica of the Cathedral in Lego, using around 350,000 Lego bricks. For a small donation visitors get to place a Lego brick on the part of the model that is being built, and the model is slowly growing. The pictures below show the status of the model when I visited the cathedral in June 2014. It is shaping up to be an impressive build.

Pictures: County Durham (June 2014).

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The Lambton Worm

Anyone who has ever visited the Sunderland area will no-doubt have seen the monument pictured below, which stands proud upon Penshaw Hill, and dominates the local landscape. The monument is known as the Penshaw Monument and it was built in 1844 as a half-sized replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. The monument measures in at 30 metres in length, 16 metres in width and 20 metres in height, and has columns that are 2 metres in diameter. The formal name of the monument is The Earl of Durham's Monument and it was built in dedication to John Lambton (1792–1840) who was the 1st Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada.

The Lambton family are associated with an interesting local legend, the legend of the Lambton Worm.

The legend surrounds another John Lambton who skipped church one Sunday to go fishing in the River Wear. The fishing trip was generally unsuccessful, but Lambton eventually catches an eel like creature, which he disposes of in a nearby well.  Forgetting about this creature, Lambton grows up and eventually heads overseas to join the crusades (putting the legend somewhere in the 12th Century). Over the years the creature grows extremely large and begins to terrorise local villagers, coiling itself seven times around a local hill.

Eventually the worm makes its way to Lambton Castle, where the Lord (John Lambton's father) is able to sedate the worm, via a daily ritual of offering it copious quantities of milk. A number of attempts are made by local villagers and knights to kill the worm, however all these attempts fail, as any parts of the worm that are cut off seem to re-attach themselves to the worm, healing it.

After seven years, Lambton returns from the crusades and finds that his father's estate is almost bankrupt because of the worm and the costly demands of keeping it satisfied. In response to this, Lambton resolves to destroy the worm, but first he seeks guidance from a witch near Durham. The witch advises Lambton to cover his armor in spikes and fight the worm in the River Wear, where it spends its days wrapped around a rock. The witch also advises Lambton that after killing the worm he must then kill the first living thing he sees, or else his family will be cursed not to die peacefully in their beds for nine generations. Deciding to follow the witch’s advice, Lambton arranges with his father that he will sound a horn three times once the worm has been killed. The plan being that once the signal is heard, Lambton’s father would release Lambton’s dog, which would run to Lambton to be killed, thus preventing the curse from being enacted.

Lambton does battle with the worm at the river and when the worm tries to curl itself around him it hurts itself on the spikes on his armor. As Lambton cuts pieces off of the worm, the river washes them away. Unable to heal itself, the worm finally succumbs and Lambton sounds his horn in victory. In the excitement of victory, Lambton’s father forgets to release the dog and instead rushes to congratulate his son. Lambton, cannot bring himself to kill his father (as the first living thing that he sees) and as a result nine generations of the Lambton family are duly cursed.

The local hill that the worm coils itself around seven times is often said to be either Penshaw Hill or sometimes it is the much less impressive Worm Hill in Fatfield. It's easy to see why Penshaw hill might fit the bill, as it is said that the hill that the worm coiled itself around was scarred by the worm's presence. Penshaw Hill is the only triple rampart Iron Age hill fort known to exist in the north of England and it is easy to see how the remains of these ramparts could be interpreted as marks left by the coiling worm.

The legend of the Lambton Worm is a staple of local folklore and has inspired at least one movie, Ken Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm.

The Penshaw Monument.

Dedication on the Penshaw Monument.

Information board.

The Penshaw Monument at a distance.

The Penshaw Monument, visible from the roof of Durham Cathedral.

Worm Hill in Fatfield - natural or man-made structure?

Pictures, County Durham (June 2014).

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The Durham Dwarf

The portrait below shows a man called Józef Boruwlaski. Boruwlaski was a diminutive entertainer who was born in Poland in 1739 into a family that ultimately consisted of 6 children, three of whom were unusually small. Boruwlaski was said to have been 64cm tall at 15 years old, 71cm at 22 years old, 89cm at 25 years old and finally reaching his maximum height of 99cm by the age 30. One of Boruwlaski’s elder brothers was reported to have been only a few centimetres taller than him, and his sister who was three years his junior, was reported to have been only 66cm in height (whether this was her ultimate height is unclear). However, it seems that Boruwlaski’s other three siblings were of a more normal stature, and he even had one brother who grew to be six feet and four inches in height. Boruwlaski and his two vertically challenged siblings may have been of a small size but they were also said to have been built in proportion to their height and to not have suffered any of the deformations or disabilities associated with typical dwarfism.

Boruwlaski's small stature gave him the problem of finding a suitable way to make a living, and many potential avenues of employment such as the clergy or military service were out of the question given his physique. This predicament led him to look for a wealthy sponsor and he eventually became adopted by The Starostin de Caorlix, and was then subsequently taken into the care of Countess Humiecka. This adoption kicked off Boruwlaski’s career as an entertainer and curiosity for European high society, a career that saw him touring Europe and meeting such influential people as the Queen of Hungary, the King of Poland, the King of England and the Queen of France. Even though Boruwlaski mingled with such important people, his real purpose was to essentially be an interesting diversion for the courts of the day and his travels saw him being taught to dance and play the guitar by some of the best professionals of the day. He was also often made to dress up in small copies of military uniforms and sometimes even posed in purpose built miniature doll’s houses. Some people may have classed Boruwlaski as a sideshow freak, and it must have been an interesting sight when he met a couple of prominent sideshow freaks of the era. He met Patrick Cotter (The Irish Giant) a man who stood 8 feet tall, and he also met the famously obese Daniel Lambert, who in his prime weighed in at massive 50 stone.

As Boruwlaski’s touring career came to an end he needed to find a new way to make a living. His later years saw him trying to make a living for himself and his wife (a woman of normal stature) from playing music, and eventually he had to resort to displaying himself in public and writing an autobiography to try to make ends meet. Eventually however, an organist of Durham Cathedral (Thomas Ebdon) offered Boruwlaski  a place to live, and Boruwlaski lived out his days in Banks Cottage in the company of the unmarried daughters of Thomas Ebdon. Boruwlaski eventually died in Durham in 1837 at the grand old age of 98.

It seems that the city of Durham fondly remembers its diminutive Polish resident and clues to his time in Durham can be found in a number of places. Durham Town Hall is home to a life-sized statue of Boruwlaski, as well as an oil painting of Boruwlaski as an old man. There is also a display of some of his personal effects, which includes a suit, hat, cane, chair and violin.

Durham Cathedral is also home to a tribute to Boruwlaski, his tombstone. Just inside the entrance to the cathedral on the right hand side a small stone slab (approximately 15cm x 15cm square) can be found set into the floor bearing the initials “J B”. It seems that Boruwlaski was interred in the cathedral, close to one of his influential friends (Stephen Kemble).

Following the riverside footpath that skirts the peninsular on which the cathedral resides brings the walker to a riverside folly. The folly is a mock Greek temple which is referred to locally as The Count’s House. It seems that during his touring days Boruwlaski used the title Count Boruwlaski, even though he had no formal right to the title, and as such, people incorrectly assume that the folly is where Boruwlaski once lived. The truth is less exciting however, and it seems that the folly was probably just an ornamental feature in the garden of the property where Boruwlaski saw out his retirement years.

For any readers who are interested in the Count’s life and travels a version of his autobiography can be found here.

A portrait of an elderly Józef Boruwlaski in Durham Town Hall.

A life size Józef Boruwlaski in Durham Town Hall.

A collection of Józef Boruwlaski's possessions in Durham Town Hall.

Durham Cathedral.

Józef Boruwlaski's tombstone inside Durham Cathedral.

The Durham folly known as The Count's House.

Inside The Count's House.

Pictures, County Durham (June 2014).

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