A new exhibition at Durham Cathedral showcases some of the most notable artefacts from the cathedral's archives - all whilst telling the oft-overlooked story of the County's gardeners.
This delightful display - entitled Planting Happiness - uncovers the cathedral gardens of past and present, through 15th century, garden maps and drawings and even expense receipts from over the years showing the importance of gardens, herbs and flowers in cathedral life.
From 6 March to 25 June, find out more about the medieval wellness gardens, the gardens of remembrance, the Flower Festivals of the 1960s and learn about how the cathedrals flower arrangers and gardeners still bring colour to the cathedral today.
Stretching from the Medieval Era to the current gardening team, the exhibit explores all facets of gardening at the cathedral - and the importance of those gardens in providing food, herbs, medicine, beauty and a place to relax.
Read more: Renowned Earth artwork, Gaia, coming to Durham Cathedral this summer
Marie-Therese Mayne, the cathedral's Exhibitions Officer, researched and curated the Planting Happiness exhibit, and explained the meaning of the new exhibit.
She said: "This year we have the annual theme of environment and climate change. We have a series of exhibits leading up to Gaia's visit in the summer.
"As part of the lead-up, this exhibit looks at gardens past and present. We look at the work that our gardening team, made up of Geoff, Anthony and Keith, does to maintain our gardens.
"And we trace the history of gardening back to Ancient Egypt, who decided that they wanted something pretty, and created gardens for leisure.
"The exhibit also looks at gardens in literature and history - such as the Garden of Eden and Gardens of Babylon."
The items on display included printed book collections from the cathedral archives, and parts of medieval records.
Most notably, there is the draft of a monk's letter, saying from 1454, which shows monks petitioning the Pope for permission to eat fried food and pastries at certain times of the year.
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At the time, there were strict rules on what monks could and could not eat, but the monks reason that an exception was necessary as "they have for the good of their health neither a garden nor fresh air".
Planting Happiness can be found in the exhibition space near the cathedral's monks' dormitories, which has a rolling set of exhibits changing every three to four months.
The museum is open Monday to Saturday, from 10 am til 3.30 pm. Planting Happiness will be in the Collections Gallery until June 25.
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