The Durham University Observatory is a weather observatory owned and operated by the University of Durham. It is a Grade II listed building located at Potters Bank, Durham and was founded in 1839 initially as an astronomical and meteorological observatory (owing to the need to calculate refraction from the air temperature) by Temple Chevallier, until 1937 when the observatory moved purely to meteorological recording.Documentation Preserved – Spr. 1998
The observatory's current director is Professor Tim Burt of the Geography Department, who was also Master of Hatfield College.
After the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford (from 1772) and the Armagh Observatory (from 1795), Durham has the third longest unbroken meteorological record in the UK, with records dating back to 23 July 1843, principally due to the work of Gordon Manley in creating a temperature record that would be comparable to Oxford's. The Observatory's History In 2022, Oxford University Press published Durham Weather and Climate since 1841, analysing the observatory's weather records and giving a history of the observations, as a sister volume to their Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 (2019). Observations were made manually until 1999, since when a Met Office automatic weather station has been used.
The observatory is a World Meteorological Organization Centennial Observing Station.
History The university established the observatory in 1839. Funds were raised by a public appeal and the site was made available by the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral. The building was designed by Anthony Salvin and was completed by 1841 with the telescope installed in 1842. The latitude of the observatory was determined in 1848 by Temple Chevallier and its longitude in 1851 by Richard Carrington. An obelisk was installed in the grounds of St Leonard's School, due north of the observatory, in 1850 to check the alignment of the telescope.
In 2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society assembled a collection of astronomical papers associated with the observatory, including observations carried out at the observatory by Temple Chevallier, Richard Carrington, Ralph Sampson and Edmond Hills, and a historical article by George Rochester, to celebrate the National Astronomy Meeting in Durham that year.
Former observers 1840 – 1841 Temple Chevallier 1841 John Stewart Browne 1842 – 1846 Arthur Beanlands 1846 – 1849 Robert Anchor Thompson 1849 Le Jeune 1849 Robert Healey Blakey (acting) 1849 – 1852 Richard Carrington 1852 – 1853 William Ellis 1854 – 1855 Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Rümker 1856 – 1863 Albert Marth 1863 – 1864 Edward Gleadowe Marshall 1865 – 1867 Mondeford Reginald Dolman 1867 – 1874 John Isaac Plummer 1874 – 1885 Gabriel Alphonsus Goldney 1885 – 1900 Henry James Carpenter 1900 – 1919 Frederick Charles Hampshire Carpenter 1919 – 1938 Frank Sargent 1938 – 1939 E. Gluckauf 1940 – 1945 A. Beecroft 1945 – 1948 L. S. Joyce 1949 – 1951 K. F. and G. A. Chackett 1951 – 1957 J. Musgrave 1957 – 1968 F. and D. Glockling 1969 – 1999 Audrey L. Warner
Weather records
References
External links Archived Observatory Homepage Current Observatory Homepage News Article on rising temperatures at Durham Observatory, Potters Bank, Durham; Listed building (Durham City) Durham Observatory – Durham (UNITED KINGDOM)