he local Museum in Jarrow was first established in 1974, following a £50,000 grant that had consented the restoration of Jarrow Hall House, i.e. the house built by the entrepreneur Simon Temple Jnr in the second half of the 18th century. This building was chosen as the location of the new Museum.
The first Collections of the Museum were strictly related to the archaeological excavations conducted under the direction of Professor Rosemary Cramp and Christopher D. Morris in the nearby monastic site of St Paul in Jarrow. St Paul is renowned as the monastery – together with St Peter in Wearmouth – where the Venerable Bede spent his life and wrote his works during the 8th century CE. The excavations at St Paul, commenced in 1963 and continued over several sessions until 1992, were revealing the different phases of the monastery from its foundation in the 7th century to the present. The Team directed by Professor Cramp uncovered the foundations of two narrow and elongated churches axially aligned between each other and, to their south, the remains of large rectangular structures interpreted as the early monastery. The archaeological data show that the churches and monastery were transformed many times
The fact that it was possible to recognise and explore the very structures where a famous historical character such as Bede lived and worked was reflected in the first name of the Museum: “Bede’s World Museum”.
Virtual Museum | Jarrow and its Museum | The excavations at St Pauls and the new local Museum | The monastery and the medieval landscape | Jarrow and the Industrial Revolution | Modern Jarrow | Jarrow in the first half of the 20th century | Jarrow across the 20th century | Jarrow in the late 20th century | The new local Museum and Gyrwe’s farm
