Durham: honour for Ushaw archivist and theologian

Rev Dr Sharratt

Reverend Dr Michael Sharratt was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by Durham University at its winter graduation ceremony, held in Durham Cathedral on Friday. Dr Sharratt is the long-standing archivist and librarian at Ushaw College, near Durham.

Born in Rennington, Northumberland, he is also recognised as a Catholic historian, philosopher and theologian. After studying at Ushaw, Dr Sharratt went to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He also studied in Munich and Oxford before becoming a lecturer at Ushaw in 1967. In 1977 he took up the post of library and archivist.

Dr Sharratt said: “The morning I left our house to sit the important 11-plus exam for a scholarship my father gave me the wise advice: ‘Don’t try to be clever. I’ve done my best to follow his guidance.”

Professor Paul Murray, who nominated Dr Sharratt for the honour, said: “Dr Sharratt has made a significant scholarly contribution to UK Catholic intellectual life and a wider academic contribution in relation to the Ushaw libraries. He has done vastly more than any other living individual to study, analyse, catalogue, care for and make accessible for wider scholarly use Ushaw College’s remarkable bibliographical and archival holdings.”

Ushaw closed as a seminary in 2010. A proposal to establish a new Durham University college at Ushaw is now being discussed. For more information see: www.ushaw.ac.uk/