Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon monastery

HER Number:
87

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon monastery

Place:
Monkwearmouth

Map Sheet:
NZ45NW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Religious House

Site Type: Specific:
Monastery

General Period:
Early Medieval

Specific Period:
C7-C9

Form of Evidence:
Demolished Building

Description:
Wearmouth monastery was founded by Benedict Biscop in 674 A.D. Documentary sources record a stone church built by Gaulish masons, including a 'porticus' and refectories with windows glazed, like those of the church, by glaziers from Gaul. It was abandoned after Viking attacks of the mid 9th century and revived briefly in 1072 by Aldwine, Prior of Winchcombe, who found the buildings in ruins, before it became a cell of Durham in 1083. Suggested plans of the monastic buildings and their dates (there are probably two Saxon phases) are based on surviving remains of Biscop's church - i.e. west wall and porch - 19th century observations, and Prof. Cramp's excavations in the 1960s. South of the church is a Christian cemetery, its earliest burials predating some Saxon buildings there. The site of the monastic buildings is now flat grass. SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT AND LISTED GRADE 1.

Easting:
402

Northing:
578

Grid Reference:
NZ402578

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 87 >> R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, 2, pp. 2-5, pl. opp. 10 W. Greenwell, 1870, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, I (for 1862-8), pp. xlii-xliii Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 1870, St. Peter's, Monkwearmouth, I (for 1862-8), pp. 141-4 Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 1870, Church Reports III: St. Peter, Monkwearmouth, I (for 1862-8), pp. 1-8 J.R. Boyle, 1885, Church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, I (for 1882-4), 252-3 J.R. Boyle, 1886, On the Monastery and Church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XI, 33-51 G.F. Browne, 1886, Notes on...the Original Church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth... Newcastle Library Local Studies J.R. Boyle, 1892, The County of Durham, pp. 533-45 C.C. Hodges, 1893, The pre-Conquest churches of Northumbria, Reliquary, New series, VII J. Patterson, 1903, Some Saxon Remains at Monkwearmouth Church, Antiquities of Sunderland, Vol. II (for 1901), pp. 73-82 C.C. Hodges, in W. Page, ed. 1905, Anglo-saxon Remains, Victoria County History- Durham, Vol. I, pp. 213, 234 D.S. Boutflower, in H.R. Leighton, ed. 1910, Memorials of Old Durham Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, pp. 146-62 J.F. Hodgson, 1912, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, The churches of Escomb, Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, Vol. VI (for 1906-11), pp. 163-87 D.S. Boutflower, 1925, Types of Saxon Churches in the County of Durham, Antiquities of Sunderland, XVII (for 1916-17), pp. 9-21 J. Patterson, 1920, The Church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth J. Hall, 1931, The Dates of the Monastic Remains at St. Peter's Monkwearmouth, Antiquities of Sunderland, XVIII (for 1918-25), pp. 36-62 W. & T.R. Milburn, 1931, St. Peter's Church...Notes on...repairing the Tower and West Wall, Antiquities of Sunderland, XVIII (for 1918-25), pp. 63-74 E. Gilbert, 1947, Anglian Remains at St. Peter's, Monkwearmouth, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XXV, 140-78 B. Colgrave, 1948, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, X (for 1944-53), pp. 179-94 Radford, 1954, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, C.A.R. Archaeological Journal, CXI, pp. R. Hyslop, 1960, St. Peter's Church, Wearmouth E.A. Fisher, 1962, The Greater Anglo-Saxon Churches H.M. & J. Taylor, 1965, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, I B. Colgrave & R.J. Cramp, 1969, St. Peter's Church, Wearmouth Reprint R.J. Cramp, 1969, Excavations at the Saxon monastic sites of Wearmouth and Jarrow... Medieval Archaeology, XIII, 21-66 M.A.S. Hickmore, 1973, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth R.J. Cramp, 1974, Anglo-Saxon Monasteries of the North, Scottish Archaeological Forum, V, 104-24 R.J. Cramp, 1976, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England in D.M. Wilson, ed. Monastic Sites, 201-52 R.J. Cramp, 1976, Monkwearmouth Church, Archaeological Journal, Vol. 133, pp. R.J. Cramp, 1984, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Vol. I, Parts 1 pp. 122-34, 2 plates Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1960, Medieval Britain in 1959, Medieval Archaeology, IV, 139-40 Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1963, Medieval Britain in 1961, Medieval Archaeology, VI-VII, 315 Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1964, Medieval Britain in 1962 and 1963, Medieval Archaeology, VIII, 232 Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1965, Medieval Britain in 1964, Medieval Archaeology, IX, 171 Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1967, Medieval Britain in 1966, Medieval Archaeology, XI, 264 Excavation report, D.M. Wilson & J.G. Hurst, eds. 1968, Medieval Britain in 1967, Medieval Archaeology, XII, 156 Excavation report, L.F. Webster & J. Cherry, eds. 1972, Medieval Britain in 1971, Medieval Archaeology, XVI, 150-