The Venerable Bede - England's First Great Historian

Along the narrow coastal plain of Northumbria, the River Tyne winds from Newcastle towards the North Sea, lined with oil tanks, heavy equipment, and the relics of the Tyne's industrial importance. The scene is not picturesque. It's hard to imagine that just over the crest of the riverbank lie the rural remnants of one of Europe's most historic centres of learning, the ancient Saxon monastery of St. Paul's, Jarrow.