Tynemouth, Anglian monastery

Bede mentions the monastery, suggesting that it was in existence by the 8th century. A later tradition that King Ordnance Survey mapwin was buried there suggests that it could have been founded by as early as 651A.D. In 800A.D. it was sacked by the Danes who returned in 875A.D. and completely destroyed it. Very little is known of its history and there are no visible surviving structures. Excavation in 1963 revealed evidence for four oblong timber buildings, one beneath the crossing of the medieval priory church, the others just north of the church. Although the latter were later than the Iron Age timber-built settlement there and could be pre-Conquest in date - no datable finds were recovered to associate them with the Anglian monastery. A coin of Ethelred II (841-44A.D.) came from a post-Dissolution context and, on this and earlier occasions, four Anglo- Saxon cross fragments and a grave marker were found in or just outside the priory. Excavation in 1980 revealed another, probably pre-Conquest, timber building.