Tuesday, July 29: Field Trip: Alnwick and Warkworth

Castle Tour: Alnwick Castle, Warkworth Castle, Pub Dinner Review these websites: Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Castle (School Outline) Warkworth Castle

Wednesday, July 30: Field Trip to Finchale Priory

Thursday, July 31: Lecture: Last Class

Morning Discussion:

Evening: Farewell Banquet at Hatfield College, Durham

Friday, August 1 and Saturday August 2: Free Days

You may stay in Durham at no cost until August 3rd.

Second Paper to be sent by email

Paper:

Each student is to select two important Roman, Viking or Medieval cultural aspects of early fortifications or cathedrals/monasteries (a work, for example, of art, a cultivated space or an architectural monument, from ca 50-1500). The works will need to be studied entirely from a cultural point of view--that is, what was the specific importance of the object or place in that time period, as indicated, perhaps, by literary piece written during or after that time. Here you may discuss use, style, signifiance, impact, materials and craft, and any other contributing factor.

The time-table of a four-week session requires you to choose your topics early. If, after study, you decide to treat for your first paper, for example, Middleham Castle, a site we will not be visiting until July 16th week, please spend some time doing as much research as possible on Middleham, the House of York, and the reasons for vast success of this family, all before you actually visit the site. This is good advice, in fact, for any artifact or monument that you wish to see or visit.

What will not be relevant are its present popularity, value today, subsequent history, or recent owners.

The two papers are to be 5 pages each in length; computers will be available, but the submissions can be hand-written. To facilitate the process of writing and revision, I will be meeting with you during the course, to encourage you as well as offer advice.

Medieval Studies 198 Notebook

For the Group Study (Medieval Studies 198) component of the two courses, you will keep a research journal. The specific requirements and guidelines are spelled out in this Summer Abroad site:

     Writing a Research Journal

What makes this exercise particularly apt for the the study of Medieval York is that antiquarians, some of them among the educated elite, kept such journals faithfully, and as you will see those writers have furnished us with details about the culture of the past that would otherwise be undocumented and possibly unknown. Your own journal will serve a similar purpose: though you may not be aware of it, you are as much embedded in a specific cultural perspective as were the warriors and monks of twelve hundred years ago, and your insights may in time be just as revelatory and valuable. For this reason, the Medieval Studies 198, while a pass/no pass course, is just as important for your education as the Medieval Studies 130A.

In addition, you will be doing some sketching in your journal, just as those antiquarians did, so keep that in mind. This will be described in the Introductory Class Section.

Some Useful Sites for Northumbria and Yorkshire:

The Yorkshire Dales

The Vale of York

The North Yorkshire Moors

Alnwick Castle

Bolton Castle

Middleham Castle

Richmond Castle

Skipton Castle

Bede's World, Northumberland

Warkworth Castle

York Minster

National Centre for Early Music, York

Bedern Hall, York

Merchant Adventurers' Hall

Course Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this program.

General Sites

United States Embassy in Great Britain

Air Transportation

Students can fly into

• Manchester (Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Philadelphia, New York, Newark). This airport, while more expensive to reach than Heathrow in London, is much more convenient, in that trains leave the transit complex at the airport going straight to Leeds and, beyond that, to York.
• Leeds. If you're already in Europe, you may find an inexpensive flight here, with a bus link into Leeds, and a short hour-long train trip to York.
• Durham (Tees Valley). Flights from Amsterdam. Durham is also an hour's train to York, with a frequent schedule.
• Newcastle;
• Birmingham, or
• any of the four London Airports.

In advance, you should check on times of trains from those cities to York and from Durham, and you should be prepared for relatively high prices: fares are not cheap even if bought on the same day. The last trains on a run usually leave somewhere around 10 PM. You should be able to buy ahead online as long as you don't wait too long. Don't bother with Britrail passes unless you plan on staying and traveling a lot afterwards, since they are really expensive. Unless you are older than 25 you can't even rent a car. You won't be able to obtain student concessions just on a student body card, so you may well be stuck with full fare, but you should check with a travel agency like STA Travel to see if there are options. You might investigate internet sites that you can find while in the United States. In any case, take into acount that rail transportation can be expensive. From Heathrow to Paddington Station, the fare is about 20 pounds; to get to King's Cross, the station that connects London to Durham, there is a subway fare of 4 pounds or so. The train trip to York could be 100-200 pounds ($170-$340). It is of course cheaper to buy a round trip ticket.

Rail Transportation

Up-to-the-Minute Weather in Britain

English/Metric/Temperature Conversions

Current Time in Europe

Internet and Phone Communication