Carrie Thompson
Project Manager

I am the Project Manager for the Norman Chapel Conservation Project from Durham University Estates and Facilities Directorate.
This project was one of the first projects I was allocated when I joined the Projects & Infrastructure Team in September 2021. This project has been around for a number of years, mainly due to its complexity and it has taken many years of hard work from various different specialists working together to evolve into the project that we are delivering on site today.

My hope for the Norman Chapel Conservation Project, as the oldest standing building in the city, is to preserve a key part of the city’s history for future residents and visitors to continue to enjoy for years to come. The age of the building, which was constructed around 1080, means that the fact it has survived at all is remarkable. It is also unusual for a religious space such as this to be so well preserved – partly due to it being rendered inaccessible in the 14th century when the Castle keep was enlarged. This work was however, a double edged sword, and the work done to enlarge the keep & create the north terrace resulted in a set of circumstances that would risk the integrity of the Chapel in the future. That is the crux of the current project today; water ingress and salts are affecting the stone in the Chapel and it has taken a great deal of work by a significant number of people to come up with a solution to the problem. This won’t be a quick fix and will in fact take several years; but when compared to the age of the Chapel and its significance as part of the World Heritage Site, the works are an invaluable step in ensuring the Chapel can be enjoyed by generations to come.

It is a privilege to work on this project and be able to spend so much time in this space ensuring that we do the best thing for the preservation of the Chapel. This project forms a huge part of my day to day role and will continue to do so for many years to come through the drying out period and then the final part of the project which we are still working to develop.

Find out more:

• Norman Chapel Conservation Project
• Durham University Estates and Facilities