JARROW, a parish in the eastern division of
CHESTER ward, county palatine of DURHAM, comprising
the chapelries of Heworth, and South Shields, and the
townships of Harton, Monkton with Jarrow, and Westoe,
and containing 24,189 inhabitants, of which number,
3530 are in the joint township of Monkton and Jarrow,
with Headworth and Hebburn included, 2 miles (S. W..
by W.) from South Shields. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Durham,
endowed with £400 private benefaction, and £ 1000
parliamentary grant. Cuthbert Ellison, Esq. was patron
in 1808. The church, dedicated to St. Paul, was partially
rebuilt in 1783, but retains some Norman traces,
particularly the tower on the north side: the original
church, according to an inscription on a stone, was
built in 685. There are two places of worship for
Wesleyan Methodists. This parish, which is situated on
the southern bank of the Tyne, abounds with coal, and
the Jarrow pit is one of the deepest in the coal district;
the shaft sinks one hundred and seventy fathoms,
but the workings have been carried to the depth of
two hundred. Here are numerous manufactories connected
with the trade of the port of Newcastle. In a
ruined haven, called the Slake, which covers about four
hundred and sixty acres of ground, the royal navy of
Ecgfrid is supposed to have anchored. The village,
about one mile in length, is inhabited almost solely by
pitmen and their families. The early importance of
Jarrow may be attributed to a monastery founded by
Benedict, and built on a piece of ground granted by
King Ecgfrid: it was completed in 685, and dedicated
to St. Paul, of which event there exists a memorial on
a stone in the arch of the tower of the present church,
which is inscribed in Roman characters. On the establishment
of this religious house, Venerable Bede, a
native of Monkton in this parish, entered it at the age of
nine years, received the rudiments of his education here,
and, subsequently becoming an ecclesiastic, spent his useful
and literary life within its walls, where he died in 735,
and was buried " in a porch built to his honour on the
north side of the church." In the vestry-room of the
church is his celebrated chair, rudely formed of oak,
which was invested by the superstitious devotees of
those days with various miraculous powers. This
monastery is stated to have been destroyed by the
Danes in 870, and again by the Conqueror in 1070; it
was afterwards re-established, and became a cell to .the
monastery of St. Cuthbert, at Durham, and at the dis-
solution its revenue was valued at £40. 7. 8. The remains
are adjacent to the church, but now consist of
little more than a few short Saxon columns arid tombs.
Numerous Roman relics have been discovered at various
times; when the church was rebuilt, an inscribed tablet
and the fragment of an altar were found; and, on the
alteration of the road near Jarrow Row, two square
pavements of Roman brick were uncovered.