By Tim Lewthwaite
Benedict Biscop — international book collector, influential architect, founder of Jarrow-Monkwearmouth monastery, mentor to the Venerable Bede, latter-day patron saint of Sunderland — and the man who leads us to the origin of Bedlington, Northumberland…
Bedlingtonshire, a ‘pre-county’ shire of Old English proportions, was an exclave of Durham (see yellow) until 1844, owing to its origins as land of the Lindisfarne monks.
Could Bedlington have been an early monastic pitstop between Lindisfarne and Jarrow? It was acquired by Cuthbert’s monastic community around 900AD, briefly sheltering Cuthbert’s reliquary in 1069 when his monks began their pallbearer hokey-cokey again during the Norman Conquest.
This has led some to suggest its etymology as the town of ‘bedd’ (OE prayer). A kind’ve monastic prayer inn. However, another name origin might be settlement of the Beadulings — an estate of a presumably Anglian tribe/noble family.
Before re-christening himself Benedict, the saint was Biscop Beducing. The Anglian genealogies say because his father was Beda Bubbing, semi-legendary king of Lindsey (Lincolnshire area). But we’re also told Biscop was a gesith noble of famous King Oswiu, so presumably Northumbrian.
Learn about early Northumbria’s connection to Lindsey here:
Could Bedlington be ‘tun of the Beducings’ the people of Beda, Biscop’s family? It would explain why when Jarrow was incorporated into the Cuthbertine community in the Viking Era, Bedlington retained its direct link to what became the great ecclesial territory of Durham.
Its nice to think that when a 12yo boy took his vows at Jarrow, Biscop gave this promising acolyte his family name: Bede. The Bedlington/Biscop connection has clearly found other adherents as Northumberland’s only Catholic high school is in the town: Benet Biscop Catholic Academy.
Reproduced from the following thread on X https://x.com/northerncurio/status/1980951522201530465
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