Stock Photo - St. Peter`s church, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, north east England, United Kingdom. One of the UK`s first stone churches. . Home of the Venerable Bede in the 7th century AD, part of the Anglo-Saxon Wearmouth-Jarrow monastery Information from church website: In what had been a promontory clifftop overlooking the north of the harbour and estuary of the River Wear, 60 hides of land were given by King Ecgfrith for Benedict Biscop to found the monastery of St. Peter in the name of the Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury in 673 AD. This was the beginning of a new project a movement to bring learning, culture and the Christian religion to the north of Saxon Britain. This was the monastery on whose lands the Venerable Bede was born and it was here at Wearmouth that at the age of 7 he entered the schooling of the monastery. This was the time in the dark middle ages known as the Golden Age of Northumbria, when monastic communities spread from Ireland to Iona to Lindisfarne: from Rome via Canterbury to here. Most of the monastic settlement lies under the churchyard of St. Peterâ. . s having been largely excavated and recorded by Professor Rosemary Cramp of Durham University in the 1960â. . s and covered over again for protection. Some of the stones and artefacts were unearthed and brought into the church where they can be seen on display today. The western wall and the porch and lower tower visible today date from the foundation and still stand as part of the St. Peterâ. . s church where the Christians worship as in earliest times. - See more at: http:/www. stpeters-wearmouth. org. uk/AboutStPeters. html#sthash. mQDNqdlH. dpuf.