Brian Logan, consultant at Baldwins, a CogitalGroup company, recalls the cathedral’s central tower reopening event.
Durham Cathedral is one of the most visited tourist spots in the North East. It has stood for nearly one thousand years, facing raiders and armies from Scotland and across the seas. People now come from all over the world to worship and stand in awe of this beautiful building.
Over the past three years visitors to the city will have seen the central tower wrapped in white protective sheeting but on June 1st the tower was reopened to the public, enabling everyone to get a closer look at the completed restoration work.
The repair work saw the protective wall, called a parapet, at the top of the tower rebuilt, with the stonework of the belfry and bell chamber also repaired. This caught my eye immediately, but my favourite moment was when I saw the breath-taking vista from the new viewing platform. You can see for miles!
Baldwins is very proud to renew our partnership for a fifth year with the cathedral through the sponsorship of the reopening event. It saw media, cathedral representatives and members of the Baldwins team climb the 325 steps to gather at the top of the tower to celebrate the preservation of this iconic building.
The event began with speeches from myself, the Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett, Dean of Durham and Chris Cotton, the cathedral’s architect before guests descended from the tower.
Our partnership with Durham Cathedral stems back to when we became the inaugural members of its Foundation 2020 fund. To us, this is an extremely worthwhile project which is designed to support essential maintenance and repair work. It will form a strong basis to build for the future by maintaining, developing and enhancing the fabric of the cathedral.
The fund is also being used to train a new generation of talented crafts people such as masons and joiners to keep generations of tradition alive.
We were delighted to sponsor the reopening of the central tower. It is so important that we all work together to preserve iconic, beautiful buildings such as this. The cathedral is a much-loved regional landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site, not to mention its architecture is fantastic and there is a unique beauty to it.
As a business, we are passionate about working with local communities and organisations to protect our historic and cultural sites, and we look forward to working with the cathedral for years to come.
I had a fantastic time at the event and would like to thank everybody involved in making the restoration of the central tower a huge success.
Baldwins specialises in accountancy and business advisory services, including corporate finance and specialist tax advice to all businesses from start-ups to mature companies, across a broad range of business sectors. For more information about its services, please visit www.baldwinsgroup.com
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