Wearmouth-Jarrow, or Kicking it with Bede

On Saturday, I headed up to Tyne & Wear to visit Wearmouth-Jarrow. But first of all, remember those pictures I posted from along the river? Well this was what that path looked like on Saturday.That's right, that would be it UNDER THE RIVER by the trees. Crazy flooding. Also, I just like this picture because I think the haze is kind of cool. Just ignore that weird spot towards the bottom left; sometimes my camera puts weird spots on things and I can't make it go away.

Right, so back to Wearmouth Jarrow. Wearmouth is home to St Peter's monastery, while Jarrow is home to St Paul's. They were both founded by the same guy and are considered to be essentially two branches of the same monastery. They also happen to be the UK's nominee for World Heritage Site 2010. We went to Jarrow in particular, because the World of Bede, a museum dedicated to arguably the UK's most famous medieval scholar and author, is housed nearby. Also, they were having a Christmas Fair. And that is exciting :)

To get there, we took the train from York up to Newcastle and then the metro out to Jarrow. While signs helpfully directed us the right way out of the metro station, the signs stopped abruptly right outside the metro station. So there was a bit of wandering in what we hoped was the right direction to find the place.

Here's a shot of a portion of the Wearmouth/Jarrow Way, a 12 mile trail connecting the two monasteries. They're only about 6 miles apart as the bird flies, but the roads meander a bit. I still can't believe how green everything still is.

Before hitting up the Christmas extravaganza and free admission to Bede's World, we stopped off at St Paul's and the church there. Ta da! Not terribly impressive from this angle, but then again, churches this old were kind of small, squat, thick-walled things, so that's only to be expected.

The front part is a Victorian addition to the original church dating back to 681. 681! The Anglo-Saxon church (pictured) now forms the chancel of the modern church, but originally seems to have been a chapel to Our Lady, obviously used by the monks of St Paul's. The Anglo-Saxon chapel includes 3 original windows and a tiny stained glass window has been reassembled from fragments found in excavations.

Around to the right are the extant ruins of the monastery, mostly dating to the 11th century. Bede lived at St Paul's in the late 7th, early 8th centuries, but alas that incarnation of the monastery was largely destroyed by the Vikings in 794.

I'm going to refrain from putting up more pictures of the ruins; I really ruins. I think its the archaeologist in me. But moving on.

We then headed up to the World of Bede for some craft/food/toys/etc stall browsing and some "edumacating."

Hee hee!

They had some nice replicas of Franks Casket, illuminated Bibles the size of a bed pillow, monks habits, etc. Can you imagine transporting this thing? I know there's nothing to show the scale, but take my word for it that it is about the size of a pillow, just thicker.

 

The Codex Amiatinus was produced in Northumbria (the medieval kingdom in modern day northern England) in the style of Roman illuminated Bibles as a gift to the Pope (and as a way to show off the skills of the Northumbrian scribes.) The real one is still in Italy and was actually only recently identified as a product of Northumbrian scholarship because the scribes did such a good job imitating Roman styles. It is unusual in that it is a manuscript of the entire Bible. When everything is handwritten on vellum, you can see how big a complete Bible gets. A collection of the Gospels or individual books of the Bible, such as a psalter, were much more common. The Codex is actually believed to be the earliest complete copy of the Vulgate Latin Bible. Go Northumbria. The reason they showcase it at the World of Bede is because it was commissioned and completed at Wearmouth-Jarrow, and it appears that Bede was likely involved in its compilation. Cool stuff :)

After wandering around there and buying Christmas gifts, we ventured out to the Anglo-Saxon replica farm, where they attempt to showcase how farming worked back in the day. Of course it was raining and muddy and most of the animals were taking cover, but it was kind of neat to walk around.

 

After successfully completing our medieval dork pilgrimage to Jarrow, we headed back to Newcastle in search of dinner and hung out at the pub until it was time to catch the train back to York. <3 cheap yummy fish and chips. Advantages to towns along the coast!