A Step Above the Rest
St Aidan's is a community that welcomes students from all backgrounds who want to participate fully in University and College life, both to achieve their full academic potential and actively engage in creating a diverse and vibrant College environment. The main attribute that sets it apart is our 'creative informality'. This is carried through into everything we 'Aidanites' do and resonates throughout the College community. Aidan's is a relaxed, inclusive environment and, no matter what your background or interests, there is a part that you can to play in it. We hope that you will use these and the students' own pages to get an impression of life within St Aidan's.

What do our students say...?
Every time I leave Aidan's and Durham for the holidays I can't wait to get back! Aidan's has made me much more confident and self-assured. It's such a welcoming community and gives you the support and the opportunities to aim high.
David Morris, BA History
For me, St Aidan’s has been one of the best things about university. The students are great and the staff are always there to help you. There are no two days which are the same given the amount of activity that goes on which makes each day very refreshing- you never know what’s going to happen!
Richie Wong, BSc Natural Sciences
I have recently graduated from St Aidan's College and I feel like I have left a whole family behind! St Aidan's is an incredibly special college and I feel so lucky to have been part of the warm and relaxed environment it has to offer.
Helen White, Graduate
So if you are interested in an inclusive, diverse, informal Hill College with opportunities to get involved in the community on whatever level suits you, then maybe Aidan's is the right place for you...
The Centre for Sex, Gender and Sexualities, Speaker Series, 2012-2013
Edith Thompson and Traumatic Collective Memories of Capital Punishment
The hanging of Edith Thompson in 1923 for the murder of her husband demonstrates how the execution of women in twentieth-century Britain was culturally troubling. Rumours that her hanging was horribly botched and that her ‘insides fell out’ began to circulate shortly afterwards. It was also rumoured that Edith had spent her final hours in screaming hysterics until she was heavily drugged, with the result that she was carried to the scaffold unconscious. These horror stories continued to circulate in the 1940s and 50s, and were employed by abolitionists to highlight the barbarity of the death penalty. The horror generated by Edith’s execution was connected to cultural unease with punishment of the female body. Although female executions were few in number, certain high profile cases were flashpoints for deepening ambivalence about capital punishment.
Contact jphoenix.csgs@durham.ac.uk for more information about this event.
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Contact Details
Windmill HillDurham
DH1 3LJ
Tel: +44 (0) 191 334 5769
Fax: +44 (0) 191 334 5770


Every time I leave Aidan's and Durham for the holidays I can't wait to get back! Aidan's has made me much more confident and self-assured. It's such a welcoming community and gives you the support and the opportunities to aim high.