In a message dated 09/03/2004 16:30:55 GMT Standard Time, HelenMSul@aol.com writes: > Monkwearmouth. Being a total newcomer to this part > of the country, could SKS please tell me exactly where this is. > Helen: Monkwearmouth is best described as "Sunderland north of the river", ie that part of the City of Sunderland lying north of the River Wear. The King of Northumbria granted Benedict Biscop all the land between the Wear and the Tyne "as far west as the Roman Road" (though he didn't specify which Roman Road - the Chester-Street to Newcastle one or Dere Street or indeed the Wreckendike running west from South Shields). In the SE corner of that land Benedict built his monastery in 635 and the district around the Monastery - ie that at the mouth of the Wear, but on the Monk's side rather than on the side which became the property of the Bishop of Durham, became "the Monks' Wearmouth", as opposed to "the Bishop's Wearmouth" -ie Monkwearmouth as opposed to B ishopwearmouth. Benedict's building, altered many times over the years, evolved into Monkwearmouth St Peter's Parish Church, which still includes a small part of the fabric of that original 7th century building (and much more which, although not as old as that, is still pre-Conquest). The fact that 7th century glass discovered there is considered to be the earliest known use of glass north of the Alps, was one of the main reasons, together with Sunderland's long-established glass industry, for establishing the National Glass Centre more or less adjacent to St Peters, between it and the river bank. The monastic tradition of learning is maintained by the campus of Sunderland University being also next to St Peter's. However, the greatest contribution made to our civilisation by the monastery at Monkwearmouth, I would say, lies in it having been the boyhood home of the great Bede, who went on to spend most of his adult life in the daughter monastery of St Paul's, in Jarrow. Geoff Nicholson 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU NBL/DUR family history research in depth by THE local expert. Record searching service: you name the records, I search them!