The vineyard at Wyken Hall in Suffolk. Vines grow well in southern Britain, but the country’s northernmost commercial vineyard today is said to be the Ryedale Vineyards a few miles northeast of York, not far from Bishop Cuthbert’s monastery at Crayke (see our story Crayke Abbey). Cuthbert’s ‘wine’ came from a spring at a monastery probably located in modern-day South Shields, just south of the River Tyne on the east coast of England.
‘Thou hast kept the good wine
until now.’
John 2:10.
ONE day, a monk at the Monastery of St Peter in Monkwearmouth told Bede a remarkable tale about Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne.*
Following an arduous tour of Northumbria’s more remote villages, Cuthbert and one of his priests decided to stay the night at the monastery at South Shields, governed by Abbess Verca. They were kindly received by the community, and after an excellent meal Cuthbert was offered something to drink. ‘Wine, bishop? or beer?’ the nuns asked. But Cuthbert wanted only water.
Willing hands fetched water from the spring. The Bishop blessed it, took a few sips, and handed the cup back to one of Verca’s priests, who took a sip himself and started in surprise. He made two of his brethren try it, and amazement filled their faces.
It still looked like water, but it tasted like wine. Really good wine.
All this was absolutely true, Bede’s visitor assured him. For he was one of the monks who had tasted it.
Cuthbert was appointed Bishop of Lindisfarne in 685, by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria; the events in this story appear to belong to the first year of his short episcopate – he died in 687. In 682 Bede (673-735) moved from the Monastery of St Peter at Monkwearmouth to St Paul’s in Jarrow, but the two monasteries, both founded by Bede’s Abbot, St Benedict Biscop, remained closely in touch.
