If you walk into St Paul’s church in Jarrow today, you will see a late-seventh-century Northumbrian inscription recording the dedication of the church on 23 April, 685 (see Figure 4.1). It has been incised on two stones, and, with the abbreviations expanded and word divisions inserted, the upper stone reads:

[chi-rho] DEDICATIO BASILICAE

SANCTI PAVLI VIIII KALENDAS MAIAS

ANNO XV ECFRIDI REGIS

and the lower stone reads: CEOLFRIDI ABBATIS EIVSDEMQUE ECCLESIAE DEO AUCTORE CONDITORIS ANNO IIII