IN&AROUND

21/09/2026

We're missing summer already 🥹🥲

21/09/2026

😍😍😍

Well, my last Photo of Durham Cathedral with the mist and the birds went viral yesterday. It also caused quite a stir with numerous people accusing me of various acts of skulduggery. Some people said it was AI, some said it was multiple photos stitched together. Some people even said there were two horizons. So what I thought I would do is post a photo of a similar composition from another misty morning. This one was just after the sunrise when the whole scene was bathed in golden light.

It must be remembered that I was taking this photo and the other one from 4 miles away with a big zoom lens so everything was compressed and layered. This isn’t the perception that you would get through the human eye. Also I’m stood on much higher ground than the cathedral, which is right in the valley, where all the mist has gathered. On the other side of the valley, it’s even higher up than where I am stood because right at the top you can see the Cleveland Hills.

Hope this makes things more clear and obvious that my last photo was a single shot.

21/09/2026

What was your favourite after-school treat growing up? A bag of sweets from the corner shop, chips on the way home or something waiting in the kitchen? September has us thinking about school-day memories.

15/09/2026

What local business always gives great service? Sometimes it is the smallest things that keep people going back.

Nominate a business that deserves recognition and tell us what they do particularly well.

14/09/2026

What is one local place you would hate to see disappear? It could be a café, shop, pub, community centre, market stall or somewhere you have visited for years. Tell us which place matters to you and why.

11/09/2026

Chester le Street...Steeped in History

Before Durham Cathedral, there was Chester-le-Street.

The church of St Mary and St Cuthbert stands on a site that became one of the most important religious centres in Anglo-Saxon England. After fleeing Viking attacks on Lindisfarne, the community carrying St Cuthbert’s body settled here in 883, building a wooden church and shrine. For the next 112 years, Chester-le-Street was the seat of the Bishop of Lindisfarne - effectively the cathedral of a huge northern diocese - until the community moved to Durham in 995.

And there’s another cracking claim to fame. While the Lindisfarne Gospels were kept here, the priest Aldred added an Old English translation between the lines of the Latin text, creating the earliest surviving English translation of the Gospels. The church we see today is largely 13th century, with its tall spire added around 1400.

All of that sitting quietly in the middle of Chester-le-Street, with the town stretching away behind it.

10/09/2026

We're lucky to call this place home ☺️

26/08/2026

It's National Dog Day...
This is Gypsy...In&Around North Durham's barking mad hyper hound mascot...show me your fur babies in the comments, Val x

24/08/2026

Happy Birthday to us 🎉 We're 933 years old today!

On 11 August 1093, the first stone was placed by the then Bishop of Durham, William of St Calais, and 40 years later it was complete!

More than nine centuries later, it remains a place of worship and welcome for people from around the world.

21/08/2026