Riverside Setting

The river Don connected St Paul’s to the river Tyne and out to the North Sea, and was a point of arrival for visitors to the monastery.

St. Paul's and St. Peter's monasteries were located close to the North Sea © English Heritage. Many monasteries in newly Christianized Anglo-Saxon Northumbria were on or near the North Sea coast – rivers and coastlines provided travel routes as important as those over land.

At the time the monastery was in use, the land to the east of the church was a huge area of intertidal mudflats, Jarrow Slake. The river Don provided a navigable course across Jarrow Slake into the river Tyne. Today the Don has been straightened and diverted. The mudflats have been largely infilled, forming an industrial area adjacent to the Port of Tyne dock. 

The earliest monastery had a guesthouse by the riverside, finely decorated with painted plaster and coloured glass windows. Bede tells of kings and nobles who sought advice from bishops and abbots – perhaps this building was used to receive such guests.

A photograph of a model at Bede’s World, showing the Anglo-Saxon monastery adjacent to the river © English Heritage. Craft and industrial activity also took place on the riverside in the Anglo-Saxon period – water was required for metal- and glass-working. There is evidence for terraced gardens on the south-facing slope towards the river, where vegetables and herbs were likely to have been grown.