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Absence/Presence of Durham's Black History

Exploring the legacies of Enslavement, Colonialism and Mining

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Highlighted records

Starting the walking trail of Durham's 'Black' History: Entering the Galilee Chapel

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To start the walking trail of Durham's 'Black' history we enter Durham Cathedral's entrance, turn right to walk to the Cathedral's western end into the Galilee Chapel and take a seat in the room. T...

Venerable Bede’s Tomb

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Rev. Bede wrote about Hadrian, the African abbot in Anglo-Saxon England

Miners' memorial

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The memorial to miners of County Durham was installed in 1947.

Bishop Barrington

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Bishop Barrington was known as a supporter of abolition. At the same time, his Chaplain Rev. Henry Phillpotts (1778-1869) who became a Cathedral Canon (from 1831 to 1869) was compensated with th...

Haswell Lodge Banner

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The Haswell banner of about 1890 used both sides to show seven of the pioneers of the Durham Miners’ Association: William Crawford, Tommy Ramsey, Alexander Macdonald, William Patterson, John Forman...

Unknown boy

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Discovery of an image of an unknown enslaved boy and Dutch style church interior.

Moses Window

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Moses taking leave of the court of Pharoah.

Durham Light Infantry

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The Durham Light Infantry has its origins in the 68th Foot formed in 1758, which became the Durham Regiment in 1782.

Bishop Joseph Butler

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Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752) gave a sermon to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in February 1738-9 (earlier SPG, it was a high church missionary organisation of the...
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The project is thankful for the collaboration with Durham Cathedral and received funding from Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Faculty of Social Sciences Decolonial Internship fund, Research Impact Fund (RIF), Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Fund.

The audio recordings have been supported by music from Uppbeat and features the song Fireflies by Ambient Boy • Uppbeat. The project is hugely indebted to our Research Assistant Avarna Ojha who among various other things tirelessly put the website together in collaboration with HUMAP. Anthropology decolonial Interns Judith Akoto, Alex Bovaird and Hannah Larkin were also pivotal in audio recording the entries. Colleagues in HUMAP were also helpful with their suggestions.

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions, feedback and comments from innumerable staff (academic and professional), students and colleagues from across and beyond Durham University. The project owes its legacy to these multiple collaborations and support. Thank you to all of you.

Above all, this project owes its inspiration from the lifetime research of the late community historian Sean Creighton (17 July 1947-15 May 2024) who worked extensively on the histories of Black British communities, enslavement and abolition in the North-East. 

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