Monkwearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites

The twin Saxon monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow - 'one monastery in two places'- were the creation of one man, Benedict Biscop, who had travelled abroad (to Rome and elsewhere) in the 650s and had returned determined to build a monastery 'in the Roman manner'. The historian Bede was a member of the community from the age of seven, having been entrusted to Benedict Bishop c. 680. Wearmouth The church of St. Peter was founded in 674 on a site that had already been a lay burial ground. It is the earliest documented stone church in the north. It had a simple narrow chancel, possibly with narrow aisles; the western porch became the basis for the late Saxon tower, and the east end was used as a porticus where the abbots were buried. Benedict imported specialist Gaulish masons and glaziers to do the work. Fragments of the contemporary coloured window glass have been excavated at both Wearmouth and Jarrow. Excavations have shown that the buildings of the cult centre were joined by a corridor that extended south from the church and were enclosed by a wall in an orderly layout. This layout is unique in excavated monasteries in Europe and demonstrates the survival of a Roman style of layout. Some 7th and 8th century grave-markers and architectural fragments also survive. Jarrow The church of St. Paul was dedicated in 685. It is built of small sandstone blocks, very much in the style of the Roman buildings in the fort at South Shields nearby and (across the River Tyne) along Hadrian's Wall. The nave, since rebuilt, was of the same narrow dimensions as Monkwearmouth and was probably aisled. The square-ended chancel had a funerary chapel to the east, analogous to the porticus at Monkwearmouth. The standing fabric of the claustral buildings to the south is mainly of the 1 1th and 15th centuries but the foundations of the Saxon refectory, of a meeting room, and of other structures have been excavated, so that three ranges of bnildings, including the churches, are known. The dedication stone, the oldest in England, survives, along with 7th and 8th century sculptural fragments. Boundaries Monasteries of this period appear not to have had any uniform plan but seem to have been extensive, as excavations such as those at Hartlepool or at Hoddom, in Du mfriesh ire, have indicated. The site at Hoddom spread over about 8 hectares (20 acres). At Jarrow and Monkwearmouth (as at Whitby) domestic buildings would probably have been sited to the north of the church, but in neither case is the full extent known. The likely core of each proposed site is included in the proposed boundaries. Monkwearmouth The polygonal area delimited by St. Peter's Way and Dame Dorothy Street, centred on the church, is clearly the core of the site. The earliest Saxon buildings - including some which may have preceded the church - are known to extend for nearly 40m to the south of the building. Early cemeteries are also known to the east and north of the standing fabric, within the modern polygon, but their extent is uncertain. The ground immediately to the north of the church is somewhat higher, having been used as a site for the dumping of ships' ballast in the late 1Sth and early 19th century. Saxon and medieval levels are likely to be well preserved under this overburden. The surrounding area has been intensively developed and redeveloped and no features contemporary with the monastic buildings have been identified outside the polygon. The polygonal area is therefore recommended as this part of the proposed World Heritage Site. Jarrow The area to the south of St. Paul's church contains the standing fabric of the 1 1th century claustral buildings, the site of a Saxon cemetery and the~excavated footings of two contemporary buildings belonging to the first phase of construction on the site. Beside the River Don, excavations have revealed a series of river-walls, the earliest of which may be of middle Saxon date. Immediately to the East, Jarrow Bridge (late 1Sth century) appears to mark the position of the early crossing point of the river. The low promontory to the east of the church contains the sites of the early Saxon cemetery and of workshops. Artefacts of the Roman period have also been discovered here. To the west of the church, within the present churchyard, Saxon and medieval levels survive. Early antiquarian reports suggest that further buildings lay to the north of the church. Leyland clàimed that Bede's cell lay here and, in the 1Sth century, Hutchinson recorded bnildings on what is now the Drewett Playing Fields. The site occupied by the elegant Jarrow Hall (a brick villa of c 1795), that stands at the northern limit of this area, is liLely to have been the position chosen for the major Roman triumphal monument, probably of Hadrianic date, that is thought to have been set up hereabouts. Excavations on Saxon monastic sites broadly analogous to Jarrow demonstrate that the area of activity is liLely to have extended throughout the area between the Hall and the church where domestic buildings are likely to have been sited. The proposed boundaries would include all these areas of potential interest.