South Shields, Anglian monastery

HER Number:
274

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields, Anglian monastery

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Religious House

Site Type: Specific:
Monastery

General Period:
Early Medieval

Specific Period:
C7

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Bede refers to St.Hilda, and to a monastery/nunnery not far from the mouth of the Tyne. In 648 Aidan gave St. Hilda "the land of one family on the north side of the river Wear; where for a year she also led a monastic life, with very few companions"…."...a monastery lying towards the south, not far from the mouth of the river Tyne, at that time consisting of monks, but now...inhabited by a noble company of virgins, dedicated to Christ...". The most probable site is in the vicinity of St. Hilda's church, South Shields. It is thought that it was probably destroyed by the Danes.

Easting:
36

Northing:
67

Grid Reference:
NZ3667

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 274 >> J.M. Dent, 1958, Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation; Life and Miracles of St.Cuthbert, pp. 202, 291,332 J.T. Fowler, ed. 1891, The Life of St. Cuthbert, Surtees Society, 87 (for 1889), p. 34 Rev. H.E. Savage, 1897, Abbess Hilda's first Religious House, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XIX, pp. 47-75 W. Page, ed. 1907, St. Hilda's first monastery, Victoria County History, Durham, II, p. 80