JARROW'S PLACE IN HISTORY
Northern Daily Mail: 20th September 1956.
Image © Johnston Press plc. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

“If Jarrow is mentioned, many people tend to think of the depressing, poverty-stricken place it was in the 1930's rather than of the great historical characters who lived and worked there in the seventh century” commented Canon J. Maughan M.A. when he addressed St. Paul's Library and Debating Society, West Hartlepool.

The Venerable Bede, he said, who was the first English historian, translated the Gospels, from Latin. Studied astronomy, and brought to England the present method of reckoning years, was according to tradition, born at Monkton, just outside Jarrow.
He went to Jarrow while the church of St Paul was being built. There he sang in the choir and helped in the services.
On only two occasions did he leave once to visit Lindisfarne and once to go to York where he established a centre of music.

REMAINS STOLEN
He wrote books on music as on astronomy and history. Very few of these books have survived, but there is one in the British Museum and a few manuscripts can be seen at Durham.
When he died in A.D. 735, he was buried at Jarrow, but his remains were stolen and taken to Durham.
At first they were put into St Cuthbert’s coffin, but now his tomb is be found in the Galilee Chancel.
The “Gem of Jarrow” is the ancient Church of St Paul's which was Bede’s home.
A courtier from the King of Northumbria asked permission to build churches, which were monasteries.
These were built at Bishopwearmouth (St peter's) and Jarrow (St Paul’s).
The original dedication stone of the latter is still found in the tower or the church and is dated April 23, A.D. 685.
This church is one of the most interesting in the country.
It is a perfect Saxon church and contains some of the original Saxon windows: (The first glass made in England was made at Jarrow).
It has Survived every war from the seventh to the 20th century.
St. Bede’s chair is to be found in the Sanctuary, roughly hewn in oak, and marked by vandals, who chipped off bits for its supposedly magical qualities.