Wearmouth and Jarrow
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 2 Between Tyne and Wear: an historic landscape
Chapter 3 The monasteries and their sites
Chapter 4 The church buildings and the early medieval landscape
Appendix 4.1
Chapter 5 Public perceptions of Wearmouth and Jarrow: contemporary and competing vistas
by Sophie Laidler, Sarah Semple and Sam Turner
Appendix 5.1
Chapter 6 Wearmouth and Jarrow through time
Extract from Wearmouth and Jarrow
Taken from the Introduction
The monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow were among the leading religious and cultural centres in the kingdom of Northumbria, which flourished during a 'Golden Age' in the seventh and eighth centuries AD. The surviving evidence for these first Christian centuries in Northumbria is exceptional in Britain and Europe for several reasons. First, a significant number of the kingdom's earliest monasteries have been extensively excavated by archaeologists. Important examples include Ripon, Whitby, Hartlepool, Whithorn and Hoddom. Second, there is an impressive legacy of early medieval art that comprises both stone sculpture and portable objects, particularly books. Third, many standing churches preserve parts of their Anglo-Saxon structures, including the largely complete building at Escomb and a remarkable string of churches along the Tyne valley, including Jarrow. Finally, there is a considerable surviving corpus of pre-Viking written sources, including the famous works of Bede. These archaeological, art historical and documentary sources, which are extremely rich by seventh- or eighth-century standards, provide a window onto a vigorous Christian culture with links across Britain, Ireland and Europe.
The surviving testimony of Bede and the author of Abbot Ceolfrid's anonymous Life explain how the monastery at Wearmouth was founded c.673 and how Jarrow was established around eight years later c.681. According to these histories, both sites were set up as a result of royal patronage with substantial grants of land from King Ecgfrid to Benedict Biscop. Benedict was a nobleman who, as Biscop Baducing, had enjoyed a career in the retinue of King Oswy of Northumbria before travelling several times to Rome. In the mid-660s he became a monk at the island monastery of Lérins, before going again to Rome and then back to England with Theodore of Tarsus, the new archbishop of Canterbury. In Kent Benedict spent two years as abbot of the monastery of SS Peter and Paul before making a third journey to Rome in order to collect books and relics. On his return to England he discovered the death of his patron, King Cenwalh of Wessex, so he continued his journey to his native Northumbria. According to Bede he impressed King Ecgfrith so much that the king 'immediately gave him from his personal property an area of land' to found the monastery of St Peter. In due course, impressed with Benedict's 'virtue, industry and devotion', the king made him another grant of land that he used to establish Jarrow. Thus the two monasteries were established as a twin foundation, and 'as the body cannot be separated from the head … neither should anyone try to disturb the brotherly love that would unite the two houses just as it had bound together the two chief apostles, Peter and Paul'.
All Bede's works were composed at Wearmouth or Jarrow and, as might be expected, he takes a special interest in these houses, particularly in his Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. The corpus of Bede's surviving writings alone makes Wearmouth and Jarrow outstandingly important, but we are extremely fortunate that we also have a unique body of associated artistic works and archaeological finds. In the early Middle Ages the monasteries were famous across Europe as centres for the production of books; letters sent by European saints and archbishops record requests for copies of volumes including Bede's works. Surviving masterpieces from the monastery's scriptorium include the Codex Amiatinus, which itself neatly encapsulates a range of relationships that signal how the monastery operated at local and international levels. Not only is the book the world's earliest surviving near-complete manuscript of the Vulgate Bible, but it was originally prepared by Abbot Ceolfrid and his community as a gift for St Peter's church in Rome and its leader, the pope. Books such as the Codex were used to create political links between churches and kingdoms and influenced religious practice and scholarship across Europe through men such as Alcuin of York…
Even more significant than the well-documented origins of the monasteries are the substantial surviving structures. The recent publication of the long archaeological campaign led by Professor Rosemary Cramp from 1959 to 1988 provides an exceptional insight into the establishment and development of two major monasteries in this period. Indeed, few important seventh- or eighth-century monastic sites in the whole of Europe have witnessed such extensive excavation as Wearmouth and Jarrow.
St Peter's at Wearmouth was begun c.674. The present church preserves the west wall, entrance porch and tower of its middle and late Saxon predecessor. Some fabric of the later medieval parish church also survives in the chancel, but the rest of the building was replaced during rebuilding in 1794 and 1870. The standing remains and the excavations by Cramp and others show that the original nave was a tall, narrow building c.5.6m × 19.5m internally. As well as an adjunct of uncertain function to the west of the nave, there may have been porticus, or side-chambers, on either side. The western porch was a slightly later addition; it was probably extended upwards in the later Saxon period to form a low tower. The chancel may also have been extended into a long, narrow structure similar to the surviving building at Jarrow. We know from Bede and from excavation that the church was used to house prestigious burials in both the middle and late Saxon periods. To the south of the church Cramp's excavations revealed a complex of monastic buildings that developed from the 670s onwards and included structures decorated with painted plaster, coloured glass and fine architectural sculpture. In later times the monastic buildings went out of use, although it is unclear how long some of them remained standing. The site became a cell of Durham Priory in the later Middle Ages and after the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century was the centre for a secular estate.
The surviving foundation stone of St Paul's church at Jarrow records its dedication on 23 April 685, though the monastery itself was established around four years earlier. The chancel and the lower parts of the tower are surviving Anglo-Saxon structures. The present nave and aisle were created in 1866 to replace a structure built in 1792. As at Wearmouth, substantially more Anglo-Saxon fabric survived in the eighteenth century, and we are fortunate that this was drawn in 1769. The combination of evidence from the standing building, the early drawing and Professor Cramp's excavations show that under the present nave lie the remains of a free-standing Anglo-Saxon church, almost certainly the original incarnation of St Paul's that is celebrated in the foundation stone. The present chancel was first built as a separate eastern church and it was not until later that it was joined to its western neighbour, which was accomplished by demolishing the respective end walls of the two churches and inserting a 'junction building' that survives in the lower stages of today's tower. As at Wearmouth, Professor Cramp's excavations also revealed Anglo-Saxon monastic buildings to the south of the church. These included two substantial stone structures – perhaps monastic accommodation – along with a range of auxiliary buildings. St Paul's also became a Durham cell in the later Middle Ages and the site of a small village in recent centuries. The last house here was still occupied as late as the mid-1950s.
None of the other Northumbrian monasteries that feature significantly in the eighth century documents have buildings surviving above ground. At Lindisfarne, Whitby, Hartlepool, Melrose and York the buildings have all been lost to later medieval replanning, and at Hexham and Ripon only the underground crypts survive. The combination of eighth-century documentary sources, surviving Anglo-Saxon buildings and extensive modern excavations make Wearmouth and Jarrow exceptional in England. When considered alongside the documented links between them and the outstanding intellectual legacy of their most famous resident, Bede, they have a uniquely important place among the early medieval churches of northern Europe.