St Hilda's stands on an ancient site presumed to have been occupied by the monastery founded by St Aidan in 647. There is no record of the exact date of the original foundation of the chapelry but there is evidence for a Saxon building below the present nave. The church certainly existed in Norman times, since it is mentioned in a Charter of 1154 and again in the Charter of King John in 1204. 

 

St Hilda’s Church continues to be at the very heart of the community in which it stands. The installation of a screen at the back of the church has meant the creation of a Visitors’ Centre, a calling point for many pilgrims during the year. 

 

But first and foremost, it is a ‘Parish Church’ which still offers worship to God on a week by week basis with its present church membership drawn from a fair cross-section of South Shields and surrounding area but with one aim in mind and that is, to enable the vision which St Hilda showed to flourish into the next century and beyond.