Trifter

On a bright, blustery autumn day, the honey-coloured stone ruins of Tynemouth Priory are dramatically silhouetted against the sky. Commanding the sea approaches to the river Tyne, as they have done for nearly a thousand years, they dominate the headland of Pen Bal Crag. Even though it was destroyed during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, and further eroded down the following centuries by man and time, the Priory is still a place of quiet contemplation — only now visitors’ thoughts are of the march of time rather than on the nature of God.

Priory Ruins — Author’s original image

Three kings, Oswin of Deira (died 651 AD), Osred of Northumbria (died 792 AD), and Malcolm III of Scotland (died 1093 AD) were buried at Tynemouth Priory during its long history as a religious centre, which lasted from its foundation as an Anglo-Saxon church and monastery to its destruction in 1539. The three kings are remembered in Tynemouth’s coat-of-arms containing three crowns.

Tynemouth Priory — Author’s original image

We don’t know for sure when the Anglo-Saxon Priory began but it rose to prominence with the burial of Oswin, a revered king, whose grave became a place of pilgrimage. This reverence, and the required miracles, led to him becoming a saint after his death. But the growing wealth left by grateful pilgrims excited the attention of Vikings, who first raided the Priory about 800 AD and continued their pillaging into the 900’s, destroying the isolated church on the headland. By 1000 AD the site lay abandoned until another saintly king, Edward the Confessor, re-founded the Priory in 1065. St. Oswin’s bones were discovered, so the story goes, under a pavement when a monk named Edmund dreamt the saint spoke to him. With the saint restored to his rightful place, the new Priory once again became a place of pilgrimage.

Sadly, there’s nothing left of the Anglo-Saxon monastery. What we see today are the ruins of the castle and Priory begun in 1085 by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, with work continuing right up to the 14th Century. This new Priory was a house of the Benedictine order established from the Cathedral at St. Albans in southern England. In 1127 AD, another saint, Henry of Coquet, was also buried in the Priory. Henry lived most of his life on the isle of Coquet, off the Northumberland coast, and many miracles were claimed for him even when he was alive.

Inside the Priory ruins — Author’s original image

Entrance today is through the old castle gatehouse, which remains substantially intact. It houses the ticket sales and gift shop, while other empty rooms are available to view by visitors.The principal church and domestic buildings of the Priory are so completely destroyed that the graves of the saints and kings are no longer to be seen (one of them may be, for there’s a niche in the ruins where an important tomb once lay, probably Saint Henry’s judging by its location) but there are plenty of other more modern graves around the church. The legible headstones, going back to the 1600’s, tell the usual heart-wrenching tales of boats sunk and families bereaved that all sea port churches contain. The Tyne has been a busy commercial river throughout history, from the early roman port supporting Hadrian’s Wall to the present day. Fishing, coal exports (‘taking coals to Newcastle’ is still a well-known saying), shipbuilding, and trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic have all made the ports of Newcastle, North and South Shields, and Wallsend important manufacturing and trading centres down the centuries.  Many local folk songs, the Keel Row perhaps being the most famous, tell the story of the Tyne.

Even though the Priory stood inside the walls of the castle it too was a fortress, clearly designed to be a strong point if the outer walls fell. And with reason, wars with Scotland to the north and its ally France to the south were a constant theme of the mediaeval period. Many of the Priory’s solid walls remain, at one point rising to a height of over 70 ft, to give us a glimpse of what it must have been like before Henry VIII began his systematic vandalism of monasteries and other rich religious centres. Since Henry’s day, the abandoned site has been robbed of stone for local buildings, as happened to so many of England’s great ruins.

Priory and Castle Keep — Author’s original image

After 1539, the site was no longer a religious centre but it remained in use as a fort. Later generations added their own buildings and they too are now abandoned. The Napoleonic wars, for example, added cannon and new walls made of earthwork and stone to replace the gaps that had appeared in the mediaeval walls. Some of the cannons remain in place and these ‘newer’ walls remain in excellent shape. You can walk the whole circumference of the site on them — if you’ve a head for heights. In places they skirt the very edge of the headland with a long drop to the rocks and sea far below. It’s not an entirely comfortable footpath on a windy day — and most days are windy by the sea.

In World War 1 and 2, concrete gun emplacements and magazines were built into the crag and their crude modern construction looks out of place against the earlier buildings but, from most points, they aren’t very visible and they do add their own significance to the site. They show this really has been a coastal border fort throughout all of England’s existence. And standing on the old walls looking across the mouth of the Tyne and out to sea shows it to be an ideal place for a gun battery.

Commanding the sea approaches — Author’s original image

Today, Tynemouth Priory is a quiet monument and only the sounds of seagulls and visitors disturb the soughing of the wind and shushing of the sea. Even the sounds of traffic nearby and industry farther up the river are lost on this high headland. Like the kings at rest in its quiet earth, the Priory is an almost forgotten page from history, which makes it a pretty restful place for modern visitors too.

Tynemouth Priory: Author’s original image

On a bright, blustery autumn day, the honey-coloured stone ruins of Tynemouth Priory are dramatically silhouetted against the sky. Commanding the sea approaches to the river Tyne, as they have done for nearly a thousand years, they dominate the headland of Pen Bal Crag. Even though it was destroyed during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and further eroded down the following centuries by man and time, the Priory is still a place of quiet contemplation only now visitors’ thoughts are of the march of time rather than on the nature of God.

Three kings, Oswin of Deira (died 651 AD), Osred of Northumbria (died 792 AD), and Malcolm III of Scotland (died 1093 AD) were buried at Tynemouth Priory during its long history as a religious centre, which lasted from its foundation as an Anglo-Saxon church and monastery to its destruction in 1539. The three kings are remembered in Tynemouth’s coat-of-arms containing three crowns.

Romantic Ruins: Author’s original image

We don’t know for sure when the Anglo-Saxon Priory began but it rose to prominence with the burial of Oswin, a revered king, whose grave became a place of pilgrimage. This reverence, and the required miracles, led to him becoming a saint after his death. But the growing wealth left by grateful pilgrims excited the attention of Vikings, who first raided the Priory about 800 AD and continued their pillaging into the 900’s, destroying the isolated church on the headland. By 1000 AD the site lay abandoned until another saintly king, Edward the Confessor, re-founded the Priory in 1065. St. Oswin’s bones were discovered, so the story goes, under a pavement when a monk named Edmund dreamt the saint spoke to him. With the saint restored to his rightful place, the new Priory once again became a place of pilgrimage.

Sadly, there’s nothing left of the Anglo-Saxon monastery. What we see today are the ruins of the castle and Priory begun in 1085 by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, with work continuing right up to the 14^th Century. This new Priory was a house of the Benedictine order established from the Cathedral at St. Albans in southern England. In 1127 AD, another saint, Henry of Coquet, was also buried in the Priory. Henry lived most of his life on the isle of Coquet, off the Northumberland coast, and many miracles were claimed for him even when he was alive.

Priory Ruins: Author’s original image

Entrance today is through the old castle gatehouse, which remains substantially intact. It houses the ticket sales and gift shop, while other empty rooms are available to view by visitors.

The principal church and domestic buildings of the Priory are so completely destroyed that the graves of the saints and kings are no longer to be seen (one of them may be, for there’s a niche in the ruins where an important tomb once lay, probably Saint Henry’s judging by its location) but there are plenty of other more modern graves around the church. The legible headstones, going back to the 1600’s, tell the usual heart-wrenching tales of boats sunk and families bereaved that all sea port churches contain. The Tyne has been a busy commercial river throughout history, from the early roman port supporting Hadrian’s Wall to the present day. Fishing, coal exports (‘taking coals to Newcastle’ is still a well-known saying), shipbuilding, and trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic have all made the ports of Newcastle, North and South Shields, and Wallsend important manufacturing and trading centres down the centuries.  Many local folk songs, the Keel Row perhaps being the most famous, tell the story of the Tyne.

Even though the Priory stood inside the walls of the castle it too was a fortress, clearly designed to be a strong point if the outer walls fell. And with reason, wars with Scotland to the north and its ally France to the south were a constant theme of the mediaeval period. Many of the Priory’s solid walls remain, at one point rising to a height of over 70 ft, to give us a glimpse of what it must have been like before Henry VIII began his systematic vandalism of monasteries and other rich religious centres. Since Henry’s day, the abandoned site has been robbed of stone for local buildings, as happened to so many of England’s great ruins.

Castle and Priory Keep: Author’s original image

After 1539, the site was no longer a religious centre but it remained in use as a fort. Later generations added their own buildings and they too are now abandoned. The Napoleonic wars, for example, added cannon and new walls made of earthwork and stone to replace the gaps that had appeared in the mediaeval walls. Some of the cannons remain in place and these ‘newer’ walls remain in excellent shape. You can walk the whole circumference of the site on them if you’ve a head for heights. In places they skirt the very edge of the headland with a long drop to the rocks and sea far below. It’s not an entirely comfortable footpath on a windy day and most days are windy by the sea.

In World War 1 and 2, concrete gun emplacements and magazines were built into the crag and their crude modern construction looks out of place against the earlier buildings but, from most points, they aren’t very visible and they do add their own significance to the site. They show this really has been a coastal border fort throughout all of England’s existence. And standing on the old walls looking across the mouth of the Tyne and out to sea shows it to be an ideal place for a gun battery.

Commanding the mouth of the Tyne: Author’s original image

Today, Tynemouth Priory is a quiet monument and only the sounds of seagulls and visitors disturb the soughing of the wind and shushing of the sea. Even the sounds of traffic nearby and industry farther up the river are lost on this high headland. Like the kings buried in its quiet earth, the Priory is an almost forgotten page from history, which makes it a restful place for modern visitors.