From Bede’s World Back to Jarrow Hall: A 4-Decade Museological Project (M. Romeo Pitone)
Channel: EXARC
Date: 2020-03-27

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Abstract: Bede’s World began as a museological project aiming to showcase the results of Dame Professor Rosemary Cramp’s excavations (1963-1978) at St. Paul’s monastery in Jarrow (UK). The museum opened in 1974 inside the 1785 manor house on the site with a permanent exhibition dedicated to early medieval Northumbria, monastic life and the Venerable Bede. Later, the display was updated, first in 1979 on completion of the excavations, and again on construction of a new multimillion-pound building which currently houses the museum and its collections. Included within this redevelopment, former industrial land adjacent to the new museum was reclaimed to reproduce an agricultural landscape with a selection of experimental buildings showcasing elements of Anglo-Saxon architecture based upon Northumbrian archaeological finds. In 2016, Bede’s World closed down due to financial difficulties and reopened as Jarrow Hall Anglo-Saxon Farm, Village and Bede Museum under the new management of Groundwork STAN, an environmental charity. Among the difficulties of adopting an existing, neglected, archaeological open-air museum, conserving experimental buildings may be the most complicated. The staff, with a team of dedicated volunteers, is currently committed to documenting this process, and the aim of this paper is to present Jarrow Hall and the new plans to develop its reconstructed buildings and support research in experimental archaeology.
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