FRIENDS OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL
Chairman:
Honorary Secretary:
Honorary Treasurer:
Assistant Treasurer:
Canon Dr David Hunt
Miss Margaret Stamp
Gordon Summerbell ACIB
Brian Crosby MBE MA PhD
Friends’ Office
The College
DURHAM
DH1 3EH
Tel: 0191 384 5266
th
24 February 2014
Dear Friend(s),
I am sure you will be aware of Durham Cathedral’s Open Treasure project: the Chapter’s exciting
vision to redevelop some of the spaces around the cloister, in order to display the Cathedral’s
priceless historic treasures in new and imaginative ways for the benefit of all our visitors
(both adults and children), and to protect these artefacts to the highest modern-day standards of
conservation and security.
The project has recently received a grant of £3.9m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, bringing the
total raised for the project to date to £5.7m. This has enabled some of the preliminary building
work to commence: the sound of drilling can already be heard off the south walk of the cloister!
But with the total three-year project costs amounting £10m, there is still some way to go in raising
all the sums needed. Our Friends’ organisation has already played a major part in providing funds,
pledging a total of £300,000 over the past two years, with a recommendation for a substantial
addition likely to be forthcoming at our next AGM. The Friends are proud to be in a position to help
‘collectively’ in this way, continuing our eighty-year-long commitment as an association dedicated
to supporting the Chapter in its work of maintaining and enhancing the Cathedral.
I am now taking the liberty of writing individually to all our members, in the expectation that you
will welcome an opportunity to be involved more directly as a Friend of the Cathedral in supporting
Open Treasure. I am aware that some of you close at hand may already have contributed to the
project in response to an appeal from the Dean to members of the Cathedral community, for which
I would like to add my thanks; but I feel sure that many of you would also like to participate in a
particular way which will be unique to Friends.
The grand climax of the new exhibitions will be the display of the St Cuthbert relics in the Great
Kitchen, the magnificent 14th century octagonal building which was previously the Cathedral shop.
The centrepiece of the redesigned exhibition space will be Cuthbert’s timber coffin, the most
important wooden object to have survived from the pre-Conquest period, and perhaps the greatest
of the Cathedral’s treasures. It will be exhibited in a new ‘state-of-the-art’ display case which will
allow the detail of the carved images to be enjoyed by visitors of all ages, and will include within
the case itself the latest audio-visual interpretation of the history and craftsmanship which make the
coffin so unique.
The purpose of this letter is to invite you as a Friend to contribute specifically towards the costs of
the St Cuthbert’s Coffin display in the centre of the Kitchen. The total needed is £100,000,
including the case with its lighting, plinth and oak canopy, audio-visual software and hardware, and
associated professional fees.
Secretary: Ms Dale Robinson
E-mail: [email protected]
Registered Charity No. 519110
It is an ambitious target, but I am confident that you will respond with the same show of generosity
as you did in supporting the Transfiguration Window project some years ago. If each of our 3,000
or so members donates £33 we will reach our target and, as Friends, have played a very special part
in this transformation of one of the Cathedral’s best loved spaces, with the new display of
Cuthbert’s coffin as the ‘jewel in the crown’ at its heart.
I very much hope that you will consider making a donation in response to this appeal. If you would
like to contribute, I would be grateful if you would complete and return the enclosed form with your
gift to the Friends’ Office. If you are able to Gift Aid your donation, this will enable your gift to go
further at no extra cost to you.
Thank you for your continued support for the Cathedral through your membership of the Friends,
and for taking the time to read this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Dr David Hunt
Chairman of the Friends