The North Portal of Durham Cathedral and the Problem of ‘Sanctuary’ in Medieval Britain

Abstract

A small room (which has since been destroyed) located over the north portal of Durham Cathedral has been explained as a watching-room for fugitives fleeing to seek sanctuary at the cathedral that housed the shrine of one of England's pre-eminent saints, Cuthbert. The source behind this identification is an account of the customs of Durham written only c 1593. There is no earlier documentary evidence indicating a function for this room. An examination of the customs and traditions of sanctuary, some aspects of which were unique to England in the Middle Ages, suggests that there was no need for such a supposed watching-room. A search for parallels, especially among cathedral and abbey churches from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, produces no conclusive evidence for the function of similar but larger rooms located over strongly projecting porches sheltering lateral entrances to naves. Although a function as a watching-room may be doubted more than firmly disproved, it can nonetheless be suggested that the room was more likely constructed for a liturgical purpose such as some aspect of the ritual surrounding the arrival of the bishop and his entrance into his church.