How many gardeners can you see? I can see fourteen.
A day at Bishop Auckland works well if you take the 07.30 train from Kings Cross to Durham and then a taxi. We dropped off our bags at The Park Head Hotel while the taxi waited and went on to Bp Auckland, as it is signposted.
The only game in town is The Auckland Project, it owns everywhere we visited including our hotel. This is convenient as one £24 ticket gives entry to all their attractions. We started with The Mining Art Gallery, dedicated to the work of mining artists, and crossed the road to The Spanish Gallery. The latter was opened jointly by The Prince of Wales, as he then was, and The Queen of Spain in 2022. I was told when The Queen of Spain met Jonathan Ruffer (founder and benefactor of The Auckland Project) and Jacob Rothschild in Madrid she asked Lord Rothschild what was his favourite part of Spain. Without hesitation he replied – “It’s in the North East of England”.
The gallery is world class. You might be surprised it has only one of the famous collection of thirteen paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán. The other twelve, and a copy of the thirteenth (Benjamin), hang in The Long Dining Room in the castle. They were painted 1641 – 1658 and found their way from Seville to England. Richard Trevor, Bishop of Durham, bought twelve of them in 1757. He was a political liberal and a backer of the Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753. He adapted the dining room for the paintings as a public statement of his support for Jewish naturalisation rights. Benjamin was bought by the Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven for Grimesthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire but is on loan to The Spanish Gallery.
The paintings are life-size portraits of Jacob and his twelve sons. If, like Bertie Wooster, you won a school prize for Scripture Knowledge you don’t need me to tell you Jacob was the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham; three patriarchs who are the founders of the Jewish people. Jacob’s sons were the founders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. Bishop Henson was making a statement by hanging these pictures in his grand dining room for all his guests to see.
The extent of anti-Semitism running through British history is nothing to be proud of. In the 13th century it was rife leading to Edward I in 1290 expelling Jews unless they converted to Christianity. There were voices of tolerance including at least two Bishops of Durham. The other was Bishop Herbert Hensley Henson who wrote an introduction to The Yellow Spot: The Extermination of the Jews in Germany in 1936.
Bishop Henson wanted to speak out against the government’s policy of appeasement and urges readers of The Yellow Spot to make a “vocal and insistent protest” against appeasement.
After The Spanish Gallery it was time for lunch at the excellent tapas restaurant. We got a table but I recommend booking especially at weekends in summer when the Kynren open air show is on. (“Kynren” was named after the Anglo Saxon word “Cynren” which means generation, kin or family.)
In the afternoon we looked round the castle, The Faith Museum and finished off looking at the view from the viewing platform of the eye catching Auckland Tower.
What an interesting visit! It made me think of my grandson. He has Down syndrome, is severely autistic and is Jewish, yet he is proudly named Jacob.