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St Bees is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Copeland district of Cumbria on the Irish Sea coast just south of St. Bees Head, the most westerly point of Northern England. St Bees has a Norman priory, an Elizabethan school and is a popular holiday destination. The Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk starts from the north end of St Bees Bay which is within easy walking distance of the main village centre. St Bees Head is the only major sea cliff between Wales and Scotland and is the only Heritage Coastline in Cumbria. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is the spectacular location of the largest seabird colony in north-west England. St Bees Lighthouse stands on the North Head. ==Early history== Evidence of Mesolithic and Bronze Age habitation has been found in St Bees,〔Prehistoric habitation sites in West Cumbria Part 1 -, The St Bees area and north to the Solway- J and PJ Cherry, Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol LXXXIII 1983.〕 but nothing of the Roman occupation. The name St Bees is a corruption of the Norse name for the village, which is given in the earliest charter of the Priory as "Kyrkeby becok", which can be translated as the "Church town of Bega",〔Liber 1, para i, The Register of the Priory of St Bees, Rev J Wilson, 1915, Published by the Surtees Society.〕 relating to the local Saint Bega.〔"St Bega - Cult, Fact and Legend", John M Todd, Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 1980 - Volume LXXX. 〕 She was said to be an Irish princess who fled across the Irish Sea to St Bees to avoid an enforced marriage. Carved stones at the priory show that Irish-Norse Vikings settled here in the 10th century. The Normans did not reach Cumbria until 1092, and when they took over the local lordships, William Meschin, Lord of Egremont, used the existing religious site〔"The pre-Conquest Church in St Bees, Cumbria: a possible minster?", John M Todd, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and archaeological Society, 2003 〕 to found a Benedictine priory for a prior and six monks sometime between 1120 and 1135. The priory was subordinate to the great Benedictine monastery of St Mary at York. The magnificent Norman doorway of the priory dates from just after this time; probably about 1150. The priory had a great influence on the area. The monks worked the land, fished, and extended the priory buildings. The ecclesiastical parish of St Bees was large and stretched to Ennerdale, Loweswater, Wasdale and Eskdale. The coffin routes from these outlying areas to the mother church in St Bees can still be followed in places. The priory was closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries on the orders of Henry VIII in 1539. The nave and transepts of the monastic church have continued in use as the parish church to the present day, but much of the extensive monastic buildings were plundered or fell into decay. Remarkably, the small West Cumbrian village of St Bees produced two of the archbishops of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I: Edmund Grindal; Archbishop of Canterbury and Edwin Sandys; Archbishop of York.〔"Archbishop Grindal 1519-1583 The struggle for a reformed church" - Patrick Collinson 1979 ISBN 0-224-01703-9 〕 In about 1519 Edmund Grindal was born in Cross Hill House, St Bees, which still exists, and is marked with a plaque.〔Archbishop Grindal's birthplace; Cross Hill, St Bees, Cumbria. By John M Todd and Mary Todd. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Vol XCIX, 1999.〕 He was probably educated at the priory across the valley. A devout Protestant, he made his mark in the reign of Edward VI, but had to flee to Strasbourg when the Catholic Mary I ascended the throne. On Mary's death the country once again became Protestant, and Grindal became Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and then Archbishop of Canterbury. His undoing was opposing Queen Elizabeth I on liberal religious meetings and he was suspended. He died in 1583 still in disgrace, but, virtually on his death bed, he founded St Bees School which existed until July 2015, when it closed. The present primary school in the village was established in the 1870s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Bees」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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