Jarrow to become World Heritage site

We can be proud that the Venerable Bede, the first English historian, lived, studied, and wrote his books here. Coming from Jarrow, I've grown up with an image of him in my mind, as if he were as close as a beloved relation who died shortly before I was born. I don't think it is so now, but Bede was a common Christian name amongst Jarrow boys - I think the name's unusual everywhere else.

My sincere hope, is that the next generation will connect us with the March and Bede, and not Catherine Bloody Cookson. Don't even get me started about her and the thorough nastiness and literary impoverishment of her so-called novels.

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