A Short History Church Interior Church Outside The Hermitage The School Coquet Island The Vicarage The Vicars

The lighthouse, which is a beacon all along the coast, is built upon the tower of an old monastery belonging to Tynemouth Priory. St.Cuthbert visited it in 684 to meet the Abbess of Whitby and took the first step which brought him to the seee of Lindisfarne. It is now leased from the Duke by the Trinity House Brethren. In former times Coqut Island paid tithe of wool and lamb, but not of sea fowel. In recent years the light has been automated.

The Hermit of Coquet - St.Henry was a Danish noblesman who came to Coquet in Norman times to find a retreat for prayer. Here the monks allowed him to build a hermit's cell. He tilled a little piece of ground and grew barley which he ground into flour and kneaded into loaves and dried in the sun, one of which he ate thrice a week as his only food. He gave up speaking for three years. At the end of this time many people resorted to him for counsel and blessing. He possessed the power of second sight. Many instances are given of this. His prayers and holiness had a wide influence and at his death the parishioners of Warkworth sought to claim his body for burial in the church. However a sea fret enveloped the boat bearing his body and the monks were able to convey it triumphantly to their Priory at Tynemouth where there is now a chapel dedicated to his name.