Tyne and Wear HER(87): Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon monastery - Details
87
Sunderland
Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon monastery
Monkwearmouth
NZ45NW
Religious Ritual and Funerary
Religious House
Monastery
Early Medieval
C7-C9
Demolished Building
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.
402
578
NZ402578
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