Everything about Newcastle Castle and Cathedral.
If you arrive via train from the north, you will get a sneak preview of the Castle (the castle is open daily 9:30am – 4:30/5:30 pm, from October to March, the castle is closed on Mondays) as the train line splits the keep from its gatehouse, (the Black Gate), on St Nicholas’ Street.
There is a wooden fort here that was built on top of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery by Robert Curthose, the illegitimate son of William the Conqueror, although the present keep dates back from the twelfth century. There are rooms and staircases and a bare Norman Chapel that lie off the Great Hall.
Inside the Great Hall are displays that relate to the Civil War siege of 1644 by a Scottish army that supported the Parliamentarian cause, there is also a small museum room that displays various archaeological finds.
During the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, down in the garrison room, prisoners were incarcerated while locals rushed to its deep shelter during World War II to sit out German bombings. From the rooftop, you can see for miles over the river and city.
As you travel further along St Nicholas’ Street, you will come to the Cathedral (opening times are Monday to Friday, 7:00 am – 6:00 pm, Saturday 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, Sunday 7:30 am – noon – 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm, entry is free).
The Cathedral dates back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, erected in 1470, it is topped with a crown-like structure or turrets and arches that support a lantern.
Inside the Cathedral, behind the high altar, lies one of the most significant funeral brasses in England. It was commissioned by Roger Thornton, the Dick Whittington of Newcastle, who arrived at the city of Newcastle without a penny to his name and died its most prosperous merchant in 1430.