Things to Do in Jarrow: A Local Guide

Just up the Tyne from South Shields, Jarrow is far more than a Metro stop on the way into Newcastle. For a town of its size it carries an outsized place in British history — the home of the Venerable Bede in the seventh century and of the Jarrow March in the twentieth — wrapped around Green Flag parks, quiet riverside paths, and a proper Tyneside welcome. Here is how to spend a day there.

Jarrow Hall

The obvious place to start is Jarrow Hall on Church Bank, an 11-acre heritage site built around the story of Bede. It brings together the Bede Museum, a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village, and Gyrwe farm, home to rare-breed and rescued animals that younger visitors can get close to. General admission acts as an annual pass valid for a full year, and children aged four and under go free — which makes it genuinely good value for local families.

There is a natural play area and a coffee shop set in the ground floor of the restored Georgian manor house, and Drewetts Park sits right alongside with an outdoor play area and open grass. Next door stand the ruins and church of St Paul's Monastery, where Bede lived and worked — the chancel survives from AD 685 and the church holds fragments of the oldest stained glass in the world.

Best for: Best for a relaxed half-day with children, rain or shine.

For the full history of Bede, St Paul's and how to reach the site, see our companion guide: Bede's World and Jarrow: A Day Trip from South Shields.

The Jarrow March

Jarrow's other great story is the one that put its name into every history book. In October 1936, around 200 unemployed men set out from the town to march nearly 300 miles to Parliament, carrying a petition of 12,000 signatures after the closure of Palmer's Shipyard had wiped out the town's main source of work. The Jarrow Crusade, led by the town's MP Ellen "Red Ellen" Wilkinson, took almost a month to reach London and became a lasting symbol of the hardship of the 1930s.

You can trace it around the town today. Graham Ibbeson's bronze The Spirit of Jarrow — two marchers with a banner, led by a woman, children and the march's mascot dog — stands in the town centre near the Viking shopping precinct. A steel relief by Vince Rea marks the Metro station, a tile mural designed by local schoolchildren remembers the crusade, and a plaque inside the Grade II listed Jarrow Town Hall records the decision, taken there in 1936, to march.

Best for: Best for a short, moving heritage walk around the town centre.

Parks and riverside walks

Jarrow is greener than its industrial past suggests. Both West Park and Monkton Dene Park hold Green Flag status, the national mark for well-kept public green space, and Jarrow Linear Park on Staple Road adds another stretch of open ground.

For a longer wander, the South Jarrow Circular is a gentle waymarked route that heads towards the River Don, passing St Paul's Monastery, Jarrow Bridge and the cemetery before looping back through parkland to the town centre. It links, in part, to the old pilgrim path between the twin monasteries of St Paul's in Jarrow and St Peter's in Wearmouth — a quiet, largely flat walk with a great deal of history under your feet.

Best for: Best for a free morning outdoors, buggy- and dog-friendly.

Food, drink and a pint

For lunch or an evening pint, The Robin on Roman Road is the pick — a restored 1824 coaching inn that was the original home of Jarrow Brewery, now serving fresh home-cooked food alongside a rotating range of cask ales, lagers and ciders. Jarrow Brewery's own beers are still brewed locally, and you will find its fullest range across the river at its taphouse, The Maltings in South Shields. In the town centre, the Ben Lomond on the High Street is a long-standing local known for straightforward food and drink at fair prices.

Something active

If you are visiting with older children or teenagers, Override Skate Park on Shaftesbury Avenue is an indoor park for skateboards, scooters and BMX, open to all ages and abilities with hire equipment available — a reliable option when the weather turns.

Getting there

Jarrow sits two short stops from South Shields on the Tyne and Wear Metro towards Newcastle; Bede station is the stop for Jarrow Hall and the monastery, while Jarrow station drops you in the town centre near the March memorials and the shops. The Metro and bus stations are within a few minutes' walk of each other, and there is parking around the town centre and at Jarrow Hall.

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Know a Jarrow spot we have missed? Get in touch — we would love to add it.