The oldest source of evidence for the beginnings of the monastery at Wearmouth is the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith, and the information given states: ‘They began to build a monastery near the mouth of the river Wear in the 674th year of the Incarnation of the Lord, it being the 2nd Indiction and also the 4th year of the reign of King Ecgfrith.’ This statement was repeated verbatim by Bede in his own History of the Abbots. There are, however, a number of passages in both of these works which show that the year 673 was commonly used as a base from which subsequent events in the history of the monastery were calculated. This is particularly the case with the abbatial years of Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith. The evidence relating to these two dates, 673 and 674, is in each case good. It all emanates from Wearmouth or Jarrow and from an age when there were still living men who had been born before Wearmouth's foundation. Since it seems unlikely that Wearmouth historians would have given currency to conflicting dates about the origin of their house, we may conclude that both dates are correct, but that they refer to different events.