Duke backs bid to put Bede on map
ROYAL TOUR ... HRH the Duke of Gloucester at Bedes World in Jarrow with Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp.
A BID to put the former home of the Venerable Bede in South Tyneside on the world tourist map has received the Royal seal of approval.
His Royal Highness, The Duke of Gloucester, visited Jarrow yesterday to support the World Heritage Site bid by the twin monastic site of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
The visit saw the Duke tour St Paul’s Church in Church Bank, Jarrow, where the Venerable Bede once worshipped and created highly influential books on everything from the scriptures to science, more than 1,300 years ago.
Widely regarded as the leading scholar of the medieval age and known as the Father of English History, Bede is the focal point of the heritage bid by St Paul’s Church and St Peter’s, Sunderland, which would see the Jarrow site placed on the same heritage plateau as Durham Cathedral or the Taj Mahal.
A successful bid – expected to be announced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) this summer – could provide a massive tourist boost to both the dual monastic site and South Tyneside as a whole. The Duke inspected the chancel at St Paul’s Church – the oldest part of the building – where Bede would have worshipped, before signing the visitors’ book.
Then it was on to nearby Bede’s World museum, where The Duke was greeted by museum director Mike Benson. Mr Benson said: “The Duke’s visit gave the World Heritage Site bid a tremendous boost and he was very generous with his time.
“Everyone at Bede’s World is quietly confident that the bid will be successful, and The Duke, as a patron of Bede’s World, expressed a lot of interest in the bid during a private lunch.
“Plus, it was good to see so many community representatives at what was a highly successful celebration of Bede’s World.”
The Duke was guided around the permanent Age of Bede exhibition by Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp, emeritus professor of archaeology at Durham University, who led some of the pioneering excavations at the Jarrow monastic site in the 1960s and 70s.
She said: “His Royal Highness is very knowledgeable about Bede, and has taken a keen interest in Bede’s World and the bid for World Heritage Site status over a number of years.”
The Duke also tried his hand at calligraphy, joining children – suitably dressed in monks’ habits – from St Aloysius RC Primary School, Hebburn.
Carole Godfrey, acting headteacher at the school, said: “The Duke joined our children in a calligraphy session, which fits in with their history studies in the classroom.
“This helps our children experience life as it was lived in Anglo-Saxon times.”
More regional crafts were on display for the Duke, as members of Active Ladies in South Tyneside (A-List), took part in a proggy mat workshop, creating designs inspired by some of the many glass artefacts excavated at the Jarrow monastic site.
Among the guests presented to The Duke were Coun Eileen Leask, Deputy Mayor of South Tyneside, and council chief executive Martin Swales, plus Michael Dickson and Julie Lightfoot from the borough’s business community.
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