By Sophia Charchalou

Cuth’s is a monument of our past, present and future.
If we observe the Parthenon of Athens and the city of Pompeii, they are monuments frozen in time, time capsules of their ancient past tiptoed around and roped off to not disturb the vacuum. Meanwhile, Cuth’s capsule is still in progress: impressed and marked by every generation, a monument in each of our individual histories and a history itself which patchworks each of our stories together.

Parson’s Field: a site now tainted by its colloquial name, ‘Prison Cuth’s’, yet worthy of a greater history. Beneath the modernity of Brook’s House and seeping through the cracks of its courtyard is a lonely railway. The ghost of Elvet Railway Station, demolished in 1963, tells a different story to the one lived by students now. The echo of community and celebration with the transport of passengers from surrounding pit villages to Durham for the Miners’ Gala fills the late summer breeze. Bands and taut or flapping banners, chanting and singing. This
is a history which is not lost but has been forgotten by students who pass by daily.

“Durham’s “venerable aisles, with records stored of deeds long since forgot”, are worthy of remembrance”

Walter Scott

House 9: the previous home of Mrs Helena Rosa Duncombe Shafto, a woman
commemorated by the unveiling of a blue plaque on the exterior. Who was she? A
figurehead in the mission to care for the Durham Light Infantry prisoners of war during World War I, two sons lost in war, awarded the first Honorary Freewoman of Durham honour in 1919, “a trailblazer of her time”. These are just some biographical set phrases which are fused to her name, yet her home is a more tremendous symbol of courage and ambition, a monumental example to the students who follow in her footsteps…

Students driven as she: like those who ‘refounded’ Cuth’s after the war in 1946; like those who were permitted to build their own boat house in exchange for their sporting success at the Senate Cup in 1894 (the memory of which stands a proud trophy on the Racecourse today); like you, a member of Cuth’s community who lives by the mantra, “gratia gratiam parit” (friendship begets friendship), so still supports Shafto’s humanitarian cause.

Cuth’s is not just a capsule filled with elements of an individual story but is a part of something much bigger: a part of the peninsula of the Norman motte and bailey castle and a part of the county, the people, Durham University and those who came before. As is spotlighted on Prebends Bridge by the allusion to Sir Walter Scott’s 1817 poem, Harold the Dauntless, Durham’s “venerable aisles, with records stored of deeds long since forgot”, are worthy of remembrance.

So, to the newbies, those who left us behind and those who are still here, inherit the Cuth’s legacy and make your own mark for the next generation to take command of.

Image Credit: Durham University