A slice of Christmases past is being served up by the region’s newest heritage attraction this festive season.
Auckland Castle is turning the clock back exactly 300 years as it celebrates an unexpectedly jovial side to Durham’s Georgian Prince Bishops. The doors of the medieval castle are being thrown open with visitors invited to discover more about a typically boisterous 18th century Yuletide. The outdoors has been brought indoors with the state rooms decked in traditional Georgian Christmas greenery and 18th century festive fare on the menu in the Library Tea Room. And drawing the showcase together is a spectacular and unique Twelfth Night cake that homes in on the mischievous side of Auckland Castle’s Prince Bishops.
Dr Ria Snowdon, Auckland Castle’s Project Curator who is overseeing the Christmas festivities, says, “It’s a bit of festive fun and by picking out the saucier side of the Prince Bishops we are showing their human face and how they and their families may have marked the season of goodwill.
“While we don’t know how all the bishops celebrated Christmas, we can surmise they wouldn’t have missed out on the chance to have a good time.
“The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgian times was, just like now, marked by parties, games, jokes and copious drinking and eating.
“It was a licence to let your hair down – which is what we hope our visitors will do.”
Auckland Castle’s Georgian Christmas is a festive romp through the lives of nine Bishops of Durham focused on the Long Dining Room, with the Twelfth Night cake forming the magnificent centrepiece.
Traditionally Twelfth Night (January 6th) marked the end of the Christmas festivities, overseen by a Lord of Misrule who turned the world order upside down. The cake – the equivalent of today’s Christmas lights – contained a bean and a pea. Whoever found them was appointed the King and Queen and together they would rule over the Twelfth Night feast.
Representations of each of the Georgian bishops, along with the King and Queen of the Bean and the Pastry Chef as the maker, are marked out in sugar paste on the Twelfth Night cake. It is being used as a vehicle to delve into each person’s cheekier side. Sets of irreverent playing cards featuring ribald anecdotes about the 12 figures have also been made. Once they would have been used for dinner guests to draw lots for the parts they would play during the Twelfth Night feasting.
But visitors to the castle are being invited to pick a card so they can hear more little known and sometimes salacious stories about their chosen person.
Dr Snowdon says, “It’s not widely known that the first Georgian Bishop of Durham, Nathaniel Crewe, had a wife 40 years his junior and was renowned for his lavish hospitality and opulence.
“The second, William Talbot, was allegedly in his youth a ‘great rake’ who according to contemporary reports was ‘much addicted to gaming.’
The castle is now open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30am-4pm until December 21st.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
