Ambassadors back the bid

Friday 16 Jan 09

MP’s, business people and well known personalities from across the region have pledged their support for what could be North East England’s third World Heritage Site.

The twin Anglo-Saxon monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow will be nominated by the UK Government for World Heritage Site status in 2010.

The Wearmouth-Jarrow ambassadors include influential people from the North East such as Kate Adie and Steve Cram. Some of them were at Bede’s World in Jarrow to hear more about the bid and have a sneak preview of the museum’s new exhibition.

BBC Look North presenter Jeff Brown was one of the Wearmouth-Jarrow ambassadors at the event. Speaking afterwards he said: “Wearmouth-Jarrow is a site of world importance. It was one of the most influential monasteries of its day and produced the Venerable Bede, one of the world’s greatest scholars. What is fantastic about the site is that some of the parts of the churches which Bede would have walked through and touched still exist today.”

The monastery centres on St Peter’s Church in Sunderland and St Paul’s Church in Jarrow. If it is to become a World Heritage Site then the team responsible for promoting the site must show that it has support from people locally, nationally and internationally.

The group of ambassadors are the latest high profile names to pledge support for the bid, following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Duke of Gloucester and foreign secretary and South Shields MP David Milliband.

Rt Rev Mark Bryant, Bishop of Jarrow and Chair of the Wearmouth-Jarrow Partnership explains why gathering support is so important to the success of the bid. He said: “UNESCO, who decide which sites become World Heritage Sites, are keen to see that people value the site and are actively involved with supporting the nomination. Having the support of our influential ambassadors is a huge boost for the bid and we hope they will help us spread the word far and wide.”