Anger as Auckland Castle sale plans are uncovered (From The Northern Echo)

Anger as Auckland Castle sale plans are uncovered

10:11am Wednesday 10th November 2010 in Campaigns: Save The Zurbarans Exclusive By Rob Merrick

First the Echo revealed a plan to sell the Zurbaran paintings. Now Auckland Castle is set to join them.

THE much-loved Zurbaran paintings will be sold in the new year, a senior Church official said yesterday – regardless of the strength of local opposition to the move.

And he revealed that Auckland Castle, which has been the home of the Bishop of Durham for more than 800 years, could also be sold.

Confronted by The Northern Echo, Tony Baldry, a Conservative MP who speaks for the Church Commissioners in Parliament, finally admitted their true intentions, saying: “Selling these paintings will pay for ten priests.”

The admission laid the commissioners open to fresh charges of duplicity, because they defended the sale of the paintings by arguing it would guarantee the future of the castle “for the foreseeable future”.

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman said: “I’m horrified at what is happening.

“If I have grave concerns about the sale of the paintings, then those concerns are ten-fold when it comes to flogging off the castle and its grounds.”

She added: “It really is time that the Church Commissioners came to County Durham, to tell the people of County Durham what they think they are up to.”

The Northern Echo challenged Mr Baldry, an estates commissioner, after days of stonewalling by the Church of England, which refused to discuss the fate of the £15m Zurbarans.

We revealed last Friday that the commissioners paid up to £35,000 to one of London’s leading PR companies to arrange an auction at Sotheby’s, planned for next month.

The decision – now on hold – was to be revealed days before the paintings were placed in a catalogue, to prevent a repeat of a popular campaign that prevented their sale five years ago.

Yesterday, Mr Baldry defended taking that decision in secret, saying: “It has never been the case that the Church Commissioners have a debate about the future of any of its assets.”

And asked whether the sale would go ahead in the new year, he replied: “Yes, the commissioners’ view that we are not responsible for works of art.

“There are other organisations that are glad to take care “of art. If we retain the pictures, then we have a responsibility to manage the insurance, which makes them a liability to us. They do not generate income for our work.

“Our responsibility is to use the assets that we have for the mission of the church. Selling these paintings will pay for ten priests – their stipends for life. The question is whether you have ten pictures, however important, hanging on the wall of a castle, or do you have ten priests working in inner cities like Newcastle, at a time of social need?”

Leaked documents showed the commissioners planned to tell local people the sale would mean the castle will not have to be sold in the foreseeable future.

Mr Baldry described the running costs of the castle as ludicrous.

He said: “We are reviewing all our see houses, including Auckland Castle. There is no secret about that.

“The issue is whether, in the middle of the 21st Century, it is a practical and reasonable cost to maintain a bishop in a building built for a very different era?

“If we do sell Auckland Castle, we will have discussions with local people to ensure it will still be part of the community, that people have access to the grounds, for example.”

Mr Baldry also confirmed the commissioners saw an opportunity to sell the paintings when the last Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Tom Wright, retired in August.

Mr Baldry said the Archbishops of Canterbury and York were not part of the decision to sell the Zurbarans, but “may have seen the papers”.

Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, was out of the country and unavailable for comment last night.

Councillor Barbara Laurie, chairwoman of Bishop Auckland Town Centre Forum, said selling the castle and the paintings would deprive the area of its heritage.

She said: “I am absolutely horrified.

“Doing it at a time when the castle is unoccupied is like burglars entering a property when there is no one at home.

“The paintings and castle are part of the North-East’s heritage and it is wicked to snatch it away from us.

“The way they have gone about it is despicable. They are behaving in a completely underhand way, in the name of the church, which is disgusting.”

Dr Robert McManners, chairman of Bishop Auckland Civic Society, hopes to establish a group to meet the Church Commissioners for talks. He described the situation as “opportunism at its worst” because of the lack of a bishop living there or trustees taking care of the building’s welfare.

Dr McManners said: “There is literally no one to fight the case and defend the fort.

“If the commissioners came round the table with interested parties, we could resolve this. At the moment, everyone is going to come out as losers, including the Church of England, through its commissioners, because of the perception people have of the way they have handled this, which many feel is underhand.”

Derek Jago, a former member of the Church of England’s General Synod, defended the commissioners’ right to sell the paintings.

Mr Jago, a lay reader at Escomb, Etherley and Witton Park churches, encouraged people in favour of keeping the paintings at Auckland Castle to raise enough money to buy the items themselves.

He said: “I honestly feel that, five or six years ago, the last time there was talk of selling the paintings, they should have become active then, and seen that as a warning of what could possibly happen.

“They have had all those years to raise Lottery funding, money from public donations and Government art grants.

“The paintings are the commissioners’ possessions and as far as I am concerned, they can do what they want with them. I would rather see those sold than the castle.

“The building is a place of worship, a home for a bishop, it has flats to let, and the diocesan officers are based there. I wholeheartedly object to the castle being sold and would do anything to see that kept on.”

1,000 years of history

1000: It is likely that Saxon bishops had an important house on the hill at Auckland, overlooking the confluence of the Gaunless and the Wear.

The Romans may also have had a settlement on the spot.

1183: Bishop Hugh Pudsey built a manor house at Auckland, including a banqueting hall with a buttery, wine cellar and minstrel gallery. It became the most important house in Durham, which the Prince Bishops ruled with regal authority.

1283: Bishop Anthony Bek enlarged the manor house into a castle.

1350: The area was walled to provide the bishop with a hunting park. It contained deer, fish, rabbits and wild white cattle. Everywhere else in the country, deer belonged to the king; in Durham, they belonged to the Prince Bishop.

1388: Bishop Walter Skirlaw built “Scotland”, the long wing inside the gatehouse which features in a Lewis Carroll poem.

1640: During the Civil War, Bishop Thomas Moreton fled the castle fearing attack by Scots. Oliver Cromwell sold it to Parliamentarian Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, who demolished part of it and began building himself a house out of the stone.

1660: With the restoration of the monarchy, Bishop John Cosin spent a fortune restoring the castle. He turned Bishop Pudsey’s 12th Century banqueting hall into St Peter’s Chapel.

1752: Bishop Richard Trevor created Europe’s first purpose-built art gallery for his collection of Zurbaran paintings. With the renowned Jeremiah Dixon of Cockfield, he laid out the parkland and the deerhouse. With Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby, he built the Gothic gatehouse.

1791: Bishop Shute Barrington, with architect Sir James Wyatt, built the distinctive Gothic screens, or walls, around the castle.

Wyatt put green and tinted glass in the Throne Room “to make the ladies appear less pale in the bright sunlight”.

1826: Bishop William van Mildert gave his townhouse in Durham City to the new university he was founding and concentrated on the castle.

Letters to the Editor

AT 75 years of age, I have lived within a few miles of Auckland Castle all my life, being born at Leeholme, living in Newton Aycliffe for 13 years and now in Shildon since 1972.

As children we went to the “Bishop’s Park” to play. The most we ever saw of the castle was walking past the gates on the way to the park.

The first time I was inside the gates was at a Girl Guide ceremony on the castle forecourt.

The first time I was ever inside the castle was with my daughter, at the time when functions were being planned there. My daughter was commissioned by her company to see what they were offering. She took me with her and I was delighted to enter the building, which I had only seen from afar all my life.

The castle was a revelation, as we were shown the chapel and everything throughout, but what astounded me was the room with the Zurbaran paintings of Jacob and his 12 sons. The story was very familiar to me, but to actually see these paintings was a wonderful experience.

I have visited several times since then and looked again at the paintings. Now that people can see them, they should stay where they are. – Mrs M Burton, Shildon, County Durham.