Houghall - Izeria

Houghall () is a hamlet in County Durham, in England. It is situated approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the south of Durham city centre. It is also the location of the Houghall Campus of East Durham College, associated gardens, a small number of houses and a restaurant. Coal was mined from the Hutton seam in Houghall from 1840 and a colliery village built during the 1860s although many miners lived in nearby Shincliffe. Mining declined from the 1880s and the village was demolished in the 1950s, the area landscaped and turned over to picturesque woodland. The foundations of some mining houses still remain. In 2009, heavy rain at the Houghall site caused the River Wear to carve a massive trench through the grounds of the college, some 14 feet deep and 80 feet wide. This is thought to have been an old watercourse, created by monks to divert the river from Durham Cathedral. This has attracted much attention and so has been dubbed Durham's Grand Canyon. Houghall began hosting Durham Flower Festival on its campus in 2014.

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Durham University Botanic Garden

Durham University Botanic Garden is the botanical garden of Durham University, located in Durham, England. The site is set in 25 acres (10 ha) of mature woodlands in the southern outskirts of the city. The garden was founded in 1925 and has been located on its present site since 1970; the visitor centre was opened in 1988 by the then Chancellor of Durham University, Dame Margot Fonteyn. The garden attracts over 80,000 visitors annually and has been featured in The Guardian's Country Diary and on Channel 4's Matt Baker: Travels with Mum & Dad. It is the only remaining botanic garden in the northeast of England and has been included in Durham County Councils Local List of Historic Parks, Gardens and Historic Landscapes.

Landmark Park

Shincliffe

Shincliffe is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The parish population (according to the 2011 census) was 1,796. It is situated just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south-east of Durham city centre, on the A177 road to Stockton. Shincliffe is also a civil and ecclesiastical parish consisting of Shincliffe Village, High Shincliffe, Sherburn House and Whitwell House. Shincliffe is regarded as one of the most affluent villages in Durham City and has been designated a conservation area to preserve its historic character.

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Collingwood College, Durham

Collingwood College is one of the constituent colleges of Durham University. Founded in 1972, it was the first Durham college that was purposely mixed-sex. It has over 1500 undergraduate students and just under 290 graduate students as of the year 2023/24, making it the largest college in Durham. The college is the first to break off centuries of Durham traditions, as it is the first college to never police corridors and to never make the use of gown compulsory. The college also developed a reputation for its unrivalled supremacy in sports, having won the intercollegiate sports trophy for 11 years in a row. The college was named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood (1900–1970), who was a former Chair of the Council of Durham University.

Maiden Castle Sports Centre

Maiden Castle Sports Centre, also known as the Graham Sports Centre and the Durham University Sport and Wellbeing Park, is the main sports complex at Durham University and the home for many of the university's teams. It also stages professional football as the home of Durham W.F.C. since 2020 and is used as an international venue, including hosting one of the four 2023 Women's EuroHockey Championship Qualifiers tournaments in summer 2022 and the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. It has been used as a training ground by Hartlepool United since 2021, having previously been used by Newcastle United. The sports centre is situated on the southeast side of Durham on the floodplain of the River Wear, just south of the Maiden Castle iron age fort from which it takes its name. The main sports complex, including the centre buildings and artificial pitches, are located on the west bank of the river, with vehicular access from the A177 Stockton Road, with additional playing fields on the east bank linked to the main complex via a footbridge. Paths along the river link Maiden Castle to the university's other sports fields at Hollow Drift (150 m north) and The Racecourse.

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