Seaham pebbles

Stones and pebbles on the beach at Seaham

Tree

Tree - covered in the remains of a long-dead ivy plant

Prebends Bridge, Durham

Beautiful old bridge on the River Wear in Durham City.

Echo Building

The corner of a big brand-spanking-new apartment building that has just been built on the riverside next to Wearmouth Bridge.

This is the lower part of the porch and tower of St Peter's Church which was built in AD 674. I chose this photo because it shows some Anglo Saxon stonework put there by Anglo Saxon hands over 1300 years ago.

The Venerable Bede (AD 672-735) was sent here as a 7 year old boy to train to be a monk and in AD 794 the monastery was attacked and set on fire by Viking raiders.

All that history and it's right on my doorstep.

It's still a fully functional church and a lot of my ancestors were baptised, married or buried from there.

Church Walk

View down the side of Holy Trinity Church. The small building between the two sets of railings is the old Donnison School building - a Georgian schoolroom for girls. The building came up for sale in 2000 and was bought by the Living History group. It was set on fire by vandals while it stood empty and had to be extensively renovated.

During renovation work, builders found two skeletons under the floor. The local coroner was called and he said the bones were ancient as the building had probably been erected on top of part of the churchyard over a couple of graves.

Doorway in Durham

This low doorway is situated in the gatehouse behind Durham Cathedral. It has some pieces of bell-rope nailed to it to protect it from unobservant people who don't watch where they're going.