Reasons for Designation
From the time of St Augustine's mission to re-establish Christianity in AD 597
monasticism formed an important facet of both religious and secular life in
the British Isles. Settlements of religious communities including monasteries
were built to house communities of monks, canons (priests), and sometimes lay-
brothers, living a common life of religious observance under some form of
systematic discipline. The main components of the earliest monasteries might
include two or three small timber or stone churches, a cemetery and a number
of associated domestic buildings, contained within an enclosure or vallum.
Those sites which have been excavated indicate no standard layout of buildings
was in use. Rather a great diversity of building form, construction,
arrangement and function is evident. The earliest sites were not markedly
dissimilar from contemporary secular settlements, although their
ecclesiastical role may be indicated by the presence of objects indicating
wealth and technological achievement, such as stone sculpture, coloured glass,
inscriptions, high quality metalwork and pottery. Only the church and leading
secular figures are thought to have had access to the skills and trade
networks which produced such goods. Later foundations in the 10th and 11th
centuries generally had one major stone church and a cemetery. By this time
other domestic buildings were more regularly aligned, often ranged around a
cloister. Documentary sources indicate the existence of nearly 65 early
monasteries. The original number of sites is likely to have been slightly
higher and would have included sites for which no documentary reference
survives. Of these, less than 15 can at present be linked to a specific site.
As a rare monument type and one which made a major contribution to the
development of Anglo-Saxon England, all pre-Conquest monasteries exhibiting
survival of archaeological remains are worthy of protection.
In addition to being a rare pre-Conquest monastic site, Lindisfarne Priory is
an important example of a small Benedictine house refounded to be a cell of
Durham Cathedral. Its standing remains are well-preserved and provide a good
illustration of a wide variety of monastic buildings.
Details
The monument includes the site of the pre-Conquest monastery of Lindisfarne
and the Benedictine cell of Durham Cathedral that succeeded it in the 11th
century. Monastic remains from both periods will survive outside the precinct
of the later monastery. These have not been included in the scheduling,
however, as their extent and state of preservation are not yet sufficiently
understood.
Except for a number of eighth century carved stones no remains of the
pre-Conquest church and monastery have yet been found at Lindisfarne.
Knowledge of the site comes chiefly from contemporary records and the
existence of the seventh century Lindisfarne Gospels and Liber Vitae which
were both inscribed there. The remains of the early monastery are preserved
beneath the later buildings and, in addition to the pre-Conquest church, will
include a wide range of religious and domestic structures. These remains will
also retain evidence of whether the monastery was a single-sex community
established for men, or whether it was a double-house for both men and women
such as are known to have existed elsewhere in Anglian Northumbria. The
possibility that Lindisfarne was a mixed community is suggested by the
inclusion of women in the congregation of St Cuthbert who fled to Lindisfarne
from Durham in 1069-70.
The upstanding remains and current layout of Lindisfarne Priory are entirely
post-Conquest in origin. The earliest building is the priory church which was
begun at the end of the 11th century and extended eastward in c.1140. But
for a number of Gothic windows, it is entirely of Romanesque construction and
owes much of its design and detail to Durham Cathedral. It includes an aisled
nave of six bays ending, at the west end, in a wall with square stair turrets
at the corners and a central projecting door. The door is roundheaded and
decorated with typical Norman detail such as chevron mouldings. Above, a
wall-passage overlooks the nave through an arcade of five round arches. This
feature, known as a triforium, originally extended round the nave above the
aisles. Above it stood a clerestory which allowed daylight into the nave.
Below, opposing doors opened onto the nave through both aisles but were
blocked in the 15th century when the nave went out of use. To the east of
the nave is the crossing. This has square transepts opening off to the north
and south and formerly supported a square tower on a vault of diagonal ribs,
one of which is complete and in situ. East of the crossing is the presbytery
which, in its present square-ended form, dates to the 12th century. It is
aisleless and includes the remains of a clerestory with a wall-passage and a
14th century east window. It also retains the foundations of the original
presbytery which had an apsidal or semi-circular east end. The transepts also
include apses in their east walls.
In common with most post-Conquest monasteries, the church formed the north
range of a four-sided building complex known as the cloister. The remaining
cloister ranges are all later than the church, dating mainly to the late
12th and 13th centuries. Remnants of an earlier south range show that the
buildings originally formed a square but that the cloister was extended
southwards in the 13th century. The earliest remains are of the ground
floor of the west range which dates to the period between 1190 and 1210. This
area was used for storage and was originally divided by wooden partitions. In
the 14th century it was split into three by the construction of cross walls,
and the south part, which lay adjacent to the larder at the junction of
the west and original south range, was then used as a buttery or pantry. The
barrel-vaulted larder is of the same date as the west range and includes a
cistern in the floor which is recorded as being repaired in 1451-52. Nothing
remains of the upper storey of the west range except for part of the access
stair and two garderobes or latrine pits. This floor would have included the
lay-brothers' quarters.
The 13th century east cloister range adjoins the south transept of the
church and was also two-storeyed. The vaulted ground floor was partitioned at
the north end to create a vestry. The chapter house occupied the area to the
south and next to this was the parlour, where necessary conversation was
permitted. Adjacent to the parlour was the day stair which led to the second
floor dorter or monks' dormitory. The night stair led down from the north end
of the dorter into the south transept. A door from the parlour leads into the
east end of the south cloister range. Together with the west end, this area
was altered and extended in the 14th century. Previously it included a
chamber for the prior with an infirmary to the east. In the 14th century, a
new prior's lodging was created at the junction of the south and east ranges
and comprised a two-storey building with a warming house below and a private
apartment above, which was partitioned to create a bedroom, study and
oratory or private chapel. To the east, the former infirmary was enclosed by a
fortified wall with a semi-octagonal tower at the north-east corner. The
function of the buildings within this wall has not yet been determined. West
of the prior's lodging are the remains of the 13th century monks' frater
or refectory which include a trough decorated with carved faces. This feature,
the lavatorium, was where the monks washed their hands at mealtimes. Next to
the frater is the kitchen, situated at the junction of the south and west
ranges. In the 14th century, a brewhouse and bakehouse were added to the
west and include the remains of a mash tub and large oven.
South of the cloister is the curia or outer court of the priory. This was
first built in c.1300 and included the gatehouse into the priory at the
north-west corner and a two-storey guest house at the south-east corner. Later
in the 14th century, a further range of buildings was built along the south
side and contained workshops with cisterns and a well. The construction
of this range involved the demolition of an earlier building along the west
side of the courtyard. Outside the west wall are the remains of another
structure believed to be post-Suppression in origin.
The pre-Conquest monastery of Lindisfarne was founded in c.AD 634 by Aidan, a
missionary bishop of Iona, under the patronage of King Oswald of Northumbria.
It was founded in the Celtic Christian tradition, but, after the Synod of
Whitby in AD 664, was forced to conform to Western Christianity as espoused by
the Church of Canterbury. Although governed by an abbot, the monastery was the
centre of a bishopric. Its most famous bishop was St Cuthbert who ruled the
diocese between AD 685 and AD 687. In AD 793, due to its exposed position on
the North Sea coast, it became the scene of the first Viking raid on England.
According to records, the monastery was sacked and most of its inmates killed.
However, the succession of bishops and abbots continued until AD 875 when the
community fled before a second Viking onslaught, carrying the relics of St
Cuthbert and St Oswald.
The community wandered for seven years before settling at Chester-le-Street in
AD 882. There it remained until AD 995 when, fleeing the Vikings again, it
moved to Durham which thus became the permanent seat of the bishops of
Northumbria. In 1069-70, during the so-called 'Harrying of the North' by
William the Conqueror, the community fled back to Lindisfarne but had returned
to Durham by the 25th March, 1070. In 1081, the site became the property of
the Benedictine priory and convent of Durham and was refounded as a cell of
the cathedral monastery. From that time, the name Holy Island superseded that
of Lindisfarne.
The history of the post-Conquest monastery is uneventful. Raids during the
Scottish wars of the 14th century caused some devastation of the
district dependent on the priory, but the monastery itself was partially
fortified and protected by the basalt ridge to the south known as the Heugh.
Shortly before the dissolution of the priory in 1537, its last prior, Thomas
Sparke, obtained a lease for life of the site and buildings and, in 1543, sub-
let them to the king's surveyor of victuals at Berwick. In 1613, the
connection between the priory and Durham was severed by a law suit and the
island was subsequently held by successive lessees of the Crown.
The monument has been in State care since 1913 and is also a Grade I Listed
Building. All English Heritage fixtures and fittings are excluded from the
scheduling though the ground underneath is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
