Saints, Witches, and Revolutionaries: The Women of the Historic North-East

The journey, in full

1. Durham Cathedral Location: Durham Cathedral At Durham, we explore the complex lives of women who were revered, shamed, and excluded in its medieval cathedral. Beginning with the charismatic female saints and figures who drove the establishment of the early Christian church in Northumbria and supported the early cathedral, we examine the icon of Hild of Whitby and a contemporary portrait of Margaret of Scotland in the Chapel of the Nine Altars, as well as female-produced art in the cathedral’s museum. Discover the Norman establishment of a new Benedictine priory and the rejection of women from its sacred spaces as we guide you through the shrine, cloister, Chapter House, and Monks’ Dormitory. Moving to the Frosterley Line, the West Door, and the Galilee Chapel, we tell the fascinating stories of those who were segregated as sinners by religious authorities, in contrast with those who challenged orthodoxy as important patrons, leaders, and religious revolutionaries into the Tudor and Stuart period. 2. Newcastle Castle Location: Newcastle Castle At the castle, re-experience the fraught atmosphere and tragedy of the city’s witch trials of 1649–1650, during which fifteen women and one man were executed for the crime of witchcraft. We explore their imprisonment in the castle’s dungeons and keeps, as well as the interrogations, including torture, used to extract confessions. 3. St. Mary’s Heritage Centre Location: St. Mary's Heritage Centre At St. Mary’s, our guide takes you through the church and its adjacent burial ground, which contains the unmarked grave of a woman convicted of witchcraft in Gateshead in 1649. Discover her story and harrowing experience, recounted using contemporary churchwarden accounts. Alternative option – Bowes Museum (not part of the standard itinerary) Location: The Bowes Museum Containing an astounding collection of art, interiors, and scientific marvels from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the Bowes Museum holds the personal collection of French-born actress and singer Josephine Bowes and her English husband John Bowes. Perhaps as an expression of her French heritage, the museum—originally their marital home—was designed to imitate a French château. Bowes, the daughter of a French clockmaker, was a society leader, taste-maker, and patron of the arts, and the museum offers rare insight into female artistic and social leadership in the nineteenth century. Alternative option – Gibside (not part of the standard itinerary) Location: Gibside Neo-classical Gibside was home to the paternal grandmother of John Bowes, Mary Eleanor Bowes. Explore her scandalous and pioneering life as a leader in the social sphere through the grand domestic spaces in which she exercised power and challenged contemporary social norms regarding women. Highlights include the now-ruined state rooms, banqueting hall, and the magnificent Orangery designed by Mary.