Bedes World

Western Europe was a dark and dangerous place at the beginning of the 8th century BC, the post-Roman gloom illuminated only by dim lights in the old capital and at Jarrow, Northumbria, a small monastic settlement at the furthest edges of their former Empire founded by Benedict Biscop. One man in particular, born of a lowly family who had left him at the Benedictine monastery of St Peter's, Wearmouth, aged 7, "shone forth as a lantern", producing over 150 written works on subjects as diverse as Gregorian chanting, poetry, history, science and biblical translations. His name was simply Baeda (an Old English word meaning priest) but he would be renowned as not ...  Read the complete review

I'm a Jarrow lass and the one thing I've learned over the years about coming from Jarrow is that no matter where I am in the country when I'm asked where I come from most people have heard of Jarrow, they may not know exactly where it is in England but if they are avid readers they will talk about Catherine Cookson, those with an interest in athletics will tell me about "The Jarrow Arrow" Steve Cram and most people over the age of thirty-five will have studied the Depression of the 1930's and the Jarrow Crusade in social history at school. All three of those deserve their recognition but it always saddens me a little that very few people ever ...  Read the complete review

For a man to be remembered for his writings after more than 1000 years is a noteworthy occurrence. There must be something truly remarkable about this person and surely deserves the time and effort spent in a closer look at his work. The person I am referring to is of course Bede, or the Venerable Bede to give him his correct title. The definitions of venerable in the dictionary are, respected, esteemed, and honoured. After his death, his friends were lavish in their praise of this amazing man. It comes across quite clearly that he was a nice person, a gentleman, and a truly venerable man. He was born about 672 or 673 A.D. in Northumbria. At seven years of ...  Read the complete review

This is a new category for dooyoo, one in a long line of museum-based suggestions that I have been flooding the poor staff with over the past couple of months! This one is a bit of a departure from the "traditional" museums that I have been writing so much about of late, however, Bede's World comes somewhere inbetween exhibition-based and outdoor museums. It is based around the life and times of the Venerable Bede, the priest and scholar who wrote the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" in AD 731, and who was one of the greatest and most famous writers of his age. His works were known on the continent and were widely read and ...  Read the complete review