St Paul’s Church and Monastery, Jarrow

Today I visited St Paul’s Church and Monastery in Jarrow.

Building of the church began in the year 681. Parts of the 7th century building have survived and still form part of the church, which is a living place of worship.

The monastery, and its twin site of St Peter’s in Wearmouth, Sunderland (which became known as Wearmouth-Jarrow) were the creation of  Northumbrian nobleman Benedict Biscop.

In 674, he approached King Ecgfrith of Northumbria to ask for land for a monastery. He was first given an estate to found St Peter’s, Wearmouth, and in 681, was given land at Jarrow to found St Paul’s.

Ruins are all that remain of the monastery today.

I’m still very much a beginner, but tried to play around with different angles to see what would make nice images.

Here are some of the pictures I took…

After that, I had a walk along the River Don footpath, that runs alongside the monastery, and took some more pictures…