Durham University

[KingscoteStaff]

The continuation thread for those with DC at Durham, or applying to Durham, or alumni, or staff!

January 2022 finds our DC packing their big coats, checking the forecast for snow and wondering when Michaelmas actally is...?

Assemble!
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I would strongly recommend going with kids - why? My DD is very together and mature but this is a complex decision - she’s trying to consider lots of things in a short space of time without the previous experiences in life that we have. Having three sets of eyes and ears taking things in makes for a much better review of a uni. The vast majority of unis are set up for the parents - with things for parents and kids together plus activities for kids and tours and talks for parents separately. Durham last year had strikes on offer days so staff were limited and therefore parents things in certain departments were not able to run. We asked if we could wander around the lab facilities while our DD was doing her lab sessions elsewhere and that was fine.

The colleges are across two areas of the town and a long walk between if you have limited time. So I agree narrowing it down to a max of 3-4 would be a great idea. We did subject talk, tea and cake while DD did lab session and we had lunch and looked around 3 colleges. That took from 9.30-4.30pm.

My opinion is that the majority of parents will be stumping up top up funding that most cases runs in excess of £20k so attending offer days is important. If you’d give your child £20k and let him invest it for you without seeing what he was investing in first then great.

At Durham 40 kids attended only 2 without parents. York it was one without a parent and he sat next to us at lunch and asked so many questions. 2 attended with older siblings studying at the uni. Sheffield in the group of 12 kids DD did activities with in the afternoon all had a parent or two with them.

Yes, we had to let DS go on his own to Durham as we both had covid but we had already done an official Uni walking tour of the Campus in the summer.

Only him and one other international student in his group were on their own. DS made his mind up on the day he wanted a modern hill college which ended up the right decision for him (and us as we aren’t loaded). But I think if I had gone with him to the offer day I may have tried to sway him to consider and look around the more traditional Colleges (which do seem to attract those with money) and the Colleges are very spread out so we may well have fallen out and ran out of time and energy.

Hi all. How is everyone doing? We popped up to Durham last weekend.

Hope first year dcs are happily settled and those with Dc graduating this year have sorted all the arrangements . No doubt it will be an emotional day for you all .

Dd mentioned she was halfway through her time in Durham now …It’s going so fast ! 😱

I see there are train strikes on the 18th March ( end of this term) .. Dd can hang on and come back when it suits but it’s a blimming pain if you are in halls and have to vacate on that day. Hope everyone’s dc can sort something out.

I have just been up for a few days to visit DS. Had a nice afternoon / evening in Newcastle - have done soooo many steps over two days!

Am currently on the train home, wrestling with delays caused by the high winds this morning.

We were in Durham for a few days this week and saw lots of prospective students and their parents there for the Open Day on Wed. Fair took me back, it did!
Lots of bracing walks in the surrounding countryside and 3 beaches at Seaham. Lovely!

Ooh we revisited Seaham too @SpamhappyTootsie .. it was lovely . It was a nice day weather wise and so was busy .. the chippy and ice cream parlour was doing a good trade
@Watsername .. sounds like a a good time .. hope journey home isn’t too torturous and that your feet recover

Heading up next weekend - need to book Saturday post-match tea in Newcastle, Saturday dinner in Durham and Sunday lunch somewhere in between!

Going to visit tomorrow to visit DS. Spending the day together. Going to Google Seaham! DD15 is staying overnight with her big brother while I go and visit my old university roommate from the 1990s who very conveniently lives 15 minutes away.

Ray Lonsdale’s ‘Tommy’ statue is stunning.
This time we walked from Nose’s Point to Hawthorn Dene, around the nature reserve there, then down some very precarious steps to Hawthorn Hive beach, where lots of people have spelled out names with large pebbles (you can see these from the path above for the full effect). Then back and down the stone slab steps to Blast Beach (Aliens 3 scenes filmed here, amongst others). The gravel track back up to the car park was a bit of a killer
We drove to Seaham Hall car park and went down to the beach there, then along the Byron Path to St Mary The Virgin church, which was closed, unfortunately.
And my thigh muscles really felt all those steps the next day

Thank you for the details. It definitely sounds like a great place to visit. I will add some extra layers into our bags tomorrow morning.

Seaham is nice in parts. The Seaham statue is stunning. A bit run down in the town though.

Tommy statue I meant.

Yes, it certainly isn’t a Chocolate Box illustration seaside town, but I prefer the ones that aren’t. Blast Beach is the perfect illustration of the industrial past haunting the present. As is Tommy. You see that replicated in the villages around. The only reason a lot of the green space exists is because mine workings meant it couldn’t be built over. So now it’s common land in the truest sense of the word.
Next visit, I’m going to search out more of Ray Lonsdale’s sculptures.

If it were really chocolate boxy it would be heaving .. so I prefer that type of seaside tbh. It had a few different beaches. We went to glass beach first and then walked along and down to one at the harbour ( slope beach I think)
saw the Tommy statue
Haven’t really explored Newcastle . We like museums and galleries so will have to see what Newcastle has when we next go .

Back from Durham. Had a fabulous time. It was lovely walking on the beach at Seaham. We went from Glass Beach to Tommy statue. I spent the evening with my old university friend and DD15 loved a taste of university life with her brother. Roll on the Easter holiday.

@Engineeringlife Glad you enjoyed a wonderful weekend.

We are up to Durham on the 2nd ! Can’t wait!

@Fruitygal Very envious. DS's grandparents are visiting him one day next week. I bet your DD has some fabulous pancakes planned for later?

Has anyone visited the bishop Auckland project? If so any good? Website looks quite spenny as you pay for each place you visit
looking for artsy stuff near Durham

Have a lovely time @Fruitygal

sorry to gatecrash your thread, I'm heading up to Durham for an offer holder day with DS and wondering if you had recommendations of where to stay if you don't have a car?

We're coming up by train and I've just had a plaster removed for a broken ankle so also wondered if taxi's are freely available if the walking's still too troublesome!

There’s a premier inn in the centre of Durham, the Watergate one, it’s fairly basic, but okay. They had problems with the air conditioning in their premier rooms which made the rooms stiflingly hot, so much so we moved hotel for our second night. It was a shame because their premier rooms are nice.
There’s also the Raddison Blu which is fairly central too, along the river.
From both these Hotels you can walk to the colleges on the Bailey and to Elvet Riverside, and walk to the library in about 30 mins. There always seem to be plenty of taxis around.
Its about a ten minute walk from the premier inn up to the Station but it’s quite a big hill.

We usually stay in what was the Royal County, now a Marriott. Rather faded glory from its leisure club days but decent food. It's very central, only 2 minutes to Market Square.

But I'm trying the Radisson in a couple of weeks as I haven't stayed there yet. My son has insisted we eat at Rio again although the unlimited meat is more his thing than mine. Salad bar was nice though (and without wishing to offend vegetarians).

@affinia Depending upon which subject your DS is studying and if he wants to see the hill colleges, there were free buses running last year from the city centre up the hill and on to the park n ride. Student reps were on board to answer questions.

We generally stay at premier inn walkergate or the Radisson Blu if we want to be central/ don’t have car with us

The radisson rooms are v nice and we’ve had a river view by luck all times we’ve stayed there. The breakfast there isn’t that nice though (in our experience) . The premier breakfasts are better . Depending on how you are finding walking whilst there, you could walk over the bridge to the walkergate premier inn for breakfast? ( we’ve done this) or lots of places in town for this (we like Treats and Vennels)
We have found both hotels staff really helpful with directions/ taxi recommendations/ bus routes etc

im going to check out @dew141 ’s recommendation of the Royal county now 😁