Kathryn Tickell and The Side Perform at Ushaw College

Recipient of The Queen's Medal for Music and BBC Radio 2's Folk Musician of the Year 2012, Kathryn Tickell and her folk-classical ensemble The Side are performing at Ushaw College on Saturday 23rd May, 7.30pm.

Joining Kathryn and her Northumbrian Pipes are Louisa Tuck (cello), Ruth Wall (harp), and Amy Thatcher (accordion and clog dancing). The group have recently performed at the Berliner Philharmonika and the Luxembourg Philharmonie and are touring across the UK this summer.

Tickets cost £12.00 and are available from the Gala Theatre in Durham, or by emailing tickets@ushaw.org

'Darkness Into Light': Choral Music Concert at Ushaw

On Saturday, 25th April, 7.30pm, Ushaw College's beautiful chapel plays host to Renaissance, a vocal ensemble specialising in renaissance polyphony and contemporary music.

The group originally formed in 2011 in Durham and are now performing at venues across the UK as well as enjoying critical acclaim on BBC's Radio 3.

Tickets are available on the door or from the Gala Theatre (Durham) and are priced at £10.00. For more information, please contact tickets@ushaw.org 

Concerts and Vestments at Ushaw

Ushaw College is hosting two concerts over the next few days, both in the beautiful space of St Cuthbert's Chapel.

The first, a performance of Couperin' s Trois Leçons De Ténèbres, takes place on Wednesday, 1st April, 2015, at 7.30pm. Admission £10.00.

The second is a performance of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ for String Quartet, due to take place on Saturday 4th April, 2015, at 3.00pm. Admission £6.00.

Photograph courtesy of Ushaw College

The college is also planning to display one of its oldest vestments during the month of April, known as the Westminster Chasuble. Worn most recently by Cardinal Nichols at the Requiem Mass on 23rd March 2015 as part of the ceremonies marking the reburial of King Richard III in Leicester, the vestment is believed to date from second half of the 15th century and was worn by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Made from velvet cloths of tissue, sewn together with silver-gilt brocading thread, the chasuble depicts the Crucified Christ, along with images of St Nicholas, St Catherine, and St Pancras. For more information about the concerts and the display of the vestment, please email tickets@

Jazz and Brass Concerts at Ushaw College

The next two concerts in Ushaw College's exciting programme of public events take place this week.

On Friday, 6th March, 7.30pm, the Virtuoso Jazz Trio (George Macdonald (Clarinet) James Birkett (Guitar) Tony Abel (Bass)) take to the stage to perform a repertoire of rhythm and swing inspired by the Great American Songbook in a concert that will appeal to all ages. Admission £6.00; a licensed cafe-bar will be open to concert-goers.

The following evening, Saturday 7th March, 7.30pm, Ushaw College's Exhibition Hall plays host to the Ferryhill Town Band, an award-winning local group seen every year at the Durham Miners' Gala and the Remembrance Day Parade. A retiring collection will be taken.

For more information, please contact tickets@ushaw.org. Tickets for both events will be available on the door.

EVRA AGM: 12th February 2015

A quick reminder that the Esh Village Residents' Association will be holding its Annual General Meeting tomorrow night, 12th February 2015, at 7.30pm in The Cross Keys.

Everyone is welcome: items on the agenda include traffic and speeding (with input from our local police officers), the development of the new village playground, and planned events and new clubs for 2015. Our invited speakers are Father John Marsland and Peter Seed from Ushaw College, who will be introducing the new plans for Ushaw as it opens its doors to the public. To see the full agenda, please click on the image to the left. See you there!

Public Events at Ushaw College

Esh is lucky enough to have Ushaw College right on its doorstep. 

Founded over two hundred years ago as a college to house and train Catholic priests, much of Ushaw was designed by the famous Gothic Revival architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) and the buildings and gardens are still home to some of the finest Victorian architecture in the North East.

Since closing as a seminary, the College has opened its chapels and performance spaces up to the public and has designed an exciting and varied events programme for 2015 to which everyone is welcome. Folk, classical and jazz concerts, and talks, exhibitions and services will be taking place throughout the year: for more information, please follow this link to Ushaw's Event's page.

Car parking is free and easily accessible and the College is only 5 minutes drive from the village!

Public Lecture: Michael Brooks at Ushaw College

On Wednesday 19th October, quantum physicist, and popular science author and broadcaster Dr Michael Brooks will be giving a public lecture at Ushaw College entitled: 'At the Frontiers of Uncertainty: The Wild Frontiers of Modern Science.'

Michael is a regular contributor to the New Statesman, the New Scientist, as well as to the Guardian, the Independent and the Times Higher Education supplement, and will be speaking about the creativity and unpredictability of modern science and its relationship to its historic past.

The lecture is part of the national Being Human: A Festival of Humanities programme, and is part of The Ordered Universe Project's two-day contribution to the Festival, which also includes a full day of activities and demonstrations of medieval and modern science at Durham Cathedral on Tuesday 18th October.  

Attendance at the lecture is free of charge: to book a place, please email Dr James Kelly (james.kelly3@durham.ac.uk). The event will begin at 5.30pm at Ushaw College with a drinks reception; the lecture will run from 6.00-7.00pm.