[1][2] A towered parish church dedicated to St Mary is recorded as having stood at the site in the mid 11th century by a chaplain of Tostig, Earl of Northumbria.

Shortly after the grant construction began on the new church which was dedicated to St Oswine, whose shrine became a place of pilgrimage, and the Virgin Mary.

[2] On 20 August 1110 the shrine of St Oswine was ceremoniously transferred to the new church at Tynemouth from Jarrow marking the completion of its east end, while work on the nave continued.

[1][2] In the early 13th century the prior developed North Shields to serve as the priory's port on the Tyne which caused tension with the burgesses of Newcastle who had previously held a monopoly on all coal, wool, and fish being transported and sold along the river.

The priory was seeking independence from St Albans and so the abbot, together with the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle, convinced Edward I to suspend Tynemouth's trade and revoke the Liberty in 1290.

However, due to the fortifications erected during the invasion of Scotland in 1296, Edward I and Margaret of France visited the priory regularly and had a private oratory built for their use.

One such monk wrote a letter in the mid 14th century giving the first known written description of the priory: Our house is confined to the top of a high rock and is surrounded by sea on every side but one.

It is a great pity to see the numbed crew, whom no power on earth can save, whose vessel, mast swaying and timbers parted, rushes upon the rock or reef.

No ringdove or nightingale is here, only grey birds which nest in rocks and greedily prey upon the drowned, whose screaming cry is a token of a coming storm...

In the Spring the sea air blights the blossoms of the stunted fruit trees, so that you are lucky to find a wizened apple, though it will set your teeth on edge if you try to eat it.

Curtain walls were erected atop an earth embankment which spans the neck of the promontory and may date back to the Norman defences or the late Iron Age settlement.

In February 1390 Richard II, John of Gaunt, and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, all paid large sums of money towards Tynemouth's defences and soon construction of a gatehouse began in the middle of the aforementioned embankment which was complete by the early 15th century.

[1] New artillery fortifications were built from 1545 onwards, with the advice of Sir Richard Lee and the Italian military engineers Gian Tommaso Scala and Antonio da Bergamo.

In May 1594 George Selby and Thomas Power, lieutenant of Tynemouth Castle, captured two fugitives from the court of Anne of Denmark who had stolen some of her jewels.

Power kept Jacob Kroger, a German goldsmith, and Guillaume Martyn, a French stableman, as prisoners at Tynemouth for five weeks until they were returned to Edinburgh for summary trial and execution.

It is not known when this practice began, but a source of 1582 refers to: "the kepinge of a continuall light in the night season at the easte ende of the churche of Tinmouthe castle ... for the more safegarde of such shippes as should passe by that coast".

[10] As Governor of Tynemouth Castle, Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland is recorded as having responsibility for the light's maintenance; and he and his successors in that office were entitled to receive dues from passing ships in return.

[5] The castle played an important role during World War II[16] when it was used as a coastal defence installation covering the mouth of the river Tyne.

[2] The surviving sections of the priory, including the east end wall and lancet windows, are examples of early Gothic architecture.