Partner Libraries

Durham Cathedral Library

Durham Cathedral Library is administered by Durham Cathedral staff and comprises:

• The Sharp Library – a modern lending library with a particular focus on theology.
• The Chapter Library – a modern lending library with a wide range of subjects including classics, theology, architecture, art and local history.
• The Special Collections of rare books, with Antiquarian and Music Manuscripts.

The modern collections are accessed via the Monks’ Dormitory, the first room of the Museum off the Cathedral Cloister. Special Collections appointments are made by emailing Library@durhamcathedral.co.uk.

The medieval manuscripts and incunabula (15th-century printed books) are currently accessed at the University's Palace Green Library.

For more information, including catalogue information on all the collections, please visit our Durham Cathedral Collections guide.

Further information on access, contact details and procedures for booking appointments can be found at Durham Cathedral Library.

Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens

The search room at Ushaw is now open by appointment every Thursday and Friday. Please contact us on our enquiry form to ask about booking. To keep services running smoothly, we need 3 weeks' advance notice and a full list of references of the items you wish to consult. Your requested items will be out ready for you when you arrive. 

Home to the internationally significant archive and rare book collections managed by Durham University and owned by the Trustees of Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens, Ushaw was a Roman Catholic seminary that trained young men for the priesthood from 1808 until its closure in 2011.

The library encompasses 30,000 early printed books, incunabula, pamphlet material and printed ephemera, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. These include approximately 3,000 British sixteenth and seventeenth century items, a substantial amount of continental printing from across Europe, plus several Chinese, Turkish and Arabic texts.

The library is particularly rich in theological subjects, including:

• Bibles and biblical studies
• Roman Catholic liturgy
• History of the Church and the Papacy
• Devotional literature
• Canon Law
• Patristics
• Religious controversy

In addition, there are large numbers of books on other subjects, such as Art, Mathematics, Medicine and Natural history, reflecting the college tradition of educating seminarians in the sacred and the secular.

The library at Ushaw holds significant archive collections, specialising in early modern Catholicism and the revival of the Catholic Church in Britain during the nineteenth century. These collections include letters, diaries and other manuscripts from some of the most important figures in the English Catholic Church, including St John Henry Newman, Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, and Rev John Lingard. The college’s institutional archive also offers a unique insight into the spiritual, social and cultural life of a 200-year-old Catholic seminary.

Ushaw's own collections are complemented by other collections deposited with the college. These include:

• The archive and library of the English College in Lisbon
• Six northern English Catholic parish libraries
• The early printed book library of Bishop Moriarty

You can search the catalogue here: Library and archive collections catalogue. To search specifically for Ushaw material in the catalogue, please use the advanced search function to restrict material to 'Special Collections', then restrict the search profile to 'Ushaw Library'.

Information about Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens.

For further enquiries on the collections or to book an appointment, please complete our enquiry form.