Wearmouth monastery, dedicated to St. Peter, was found ed by Benedict Biscop; and, when that building was nearly finished, he procured artificers from France, skilled in the art of glass making, the manufacture of which the inhabitants of the British isles were at that time strangers to, and this structure had the honour of being glazed with the first glass made in England; previous to which, windows were either latticed, or at best, filled up with fine linen cloths stretched upon frames of wood.

From J. Sykes, 1833. Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Berwick upon Tweed, from the earliest period of authentic record, to the present time..Volume 1