South Shields, Anglian monastery

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
Early Medieval 410 to 1066
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
436000
Northing
567000
Grid Reference
NZ436000567000
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