The Venerable Bede never travelled farther than the city of York. He never met a Pope or world leader. He never saw a library better than his own. Bede died in his cell at Jarrow in 735, at the age of 63. He was buried in the church, but in the 11th century a cleric from Durham stole his bones and placed them with those of St. Cuthbert. His remains now rest in the Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral.

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Within a hundred years of Bede's death, his book was known all over Europe. The Ecclesiastical History formed the basis of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, compiled in the late 9th century, and popularized the BC/AD dating system, the now-common measure of time based on the birth of Christ.

The monastery itself did not fair as well. In 794, Viking raiders pillaged the coastal monasteries of Northumbria. Fire destroyed the Saxon buildings, and by the middle of the 9th century, the Jarrow community was abandoned. Bede's legacy was not forgotten, however, and inspired the foundation's rebirth in 1074. Its historic importance may have made it one of the first monasteries suppressed at the Reformation, and since 1536 St. Paul's has been a parish church.

The remains of the monastery's domestic buildings, dating mostly from the 11th century, still surround the church. The original Saxon basilica serves as the chancel of the present parish church. Its 7th-century foundations are still visible in the main aisle. Much of its dressed stone came from abandoned Roman buildings, perhaps even Hadrian's Wall. One of three splayed windows contains Saxon glass made in monastic workshops, the oldest glass in Western Europe. An ancient chair in the chancel, presumed to have been the master's chair from the medieval cell, has long been known as Bede's Chair.

English Heritage has recognized the importance of both the site and the work of Bede. Just a few hundred yards across the neat park, they have created Bede's World. The modern complex seems an unlikely departure for English Heritage, but then again, little of Bede's original world remains visible, and there is nothing to conserve.

The new interpretive centre, with its paved courtyard and atrium, offers exhibitions and displays of Bede's life, the monastery at Jarrow, and early Northumbrian history. Bede's World also incorporates a late-Georgian manor, Jarrow Hall, now a restaurant and temporary exhibition site, as well as an herb garden laid out in a traditional monastic plan.

Along the banks of the Tyne, English Heritage is developing Gyrwe, an Anglo-Saxon farm recreated to demonstrate life outside the 8th-century monastery. Replica buildings, rare animal breeds, and ancient grain and vegetable crops are all part of the maturing farmstead.

If Bede might recognize the Gyrwe farm, he certainly would recognize nothing else of modern Jarrow. The industrial age turned the sleepy village into a suburban morass of roundabouts and housing estates. Getting there requires threading through Gateshead and the Newcastle southern suburbs, or jumping off the A19 just south of the Tyne Tunnel.

In the midst of this modern confusion, though, a visit to St. Paul's, Jarrow, and Bede's World is a worthwhile exercise. It's quiet here — an oasis in the desert din of modern life. One can almost imagine the studious monk labouring away over his manuscript under the light of grey Northumbrian skies.

This article was written by Dana Huntley and originally published in the November 2003 issue of British Heritage magazine.

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