St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth
The Anglo-Saxon church of St Peter's was built in 674AD by local nobleman Benedict Biscop.
It is one of the UK's earliest stone churches and parts of the original church are still standing, including the West Wall, porch and stone carvings. St Peter's was also once home to Venerable Bede, one of our greatest ever scholars. Set on the riverside, St Peter's features a craft shop and interactive displays, as well as a coffee shop serving homemade delicacies a working church allotment garden and bee hives.
Visitors can now better appreciate the size of the original monastery thanks to new landscaping that replicates the original Benedict Biscop era footprint. Opened in June 2015 the; footprint features stone and soft landscaping to highlight the internal spaces and exterior walls of the monastery, without disturbing the buried archaeological remains.
New engineered glass windows were installed in May 2016 to celebrate the works of Bede at St Peter’s. They feature written quotes from the bible and visual representations of the changing seasons.
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Did you know?
2013 marked 21 years since Sunderland city status from HM The Queen, on 23rd March 1992.
Sunderland Top Ten's
Looking for a great family day out in a friendly, exciting city by the sea? Looking for fascinating museums, cute wildlife and plenty of space for your little ones to run off their excess energy? Look no more because Sunderland ticks all those boxes and more. Here are our ten best things for all of the family to do in Sunderland.
