The world in which Bede lived was geographically confined to the north east but he gave us a mass of information: one only has to read the first page of his ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People‘ to realise that he has described England with astonishing accuracy. The great achievement of this and his other books aside, Bede was also the man who refined the Anno Domini dating system, who understood that the world could not be flat, who worked out tide timetables 1000 years before gravity was understood and much, much more. His ability to interpret the data he collected accurately has frequently baffled later scholars and it should be remembered that he was also a monk. This lecture looks into his life and the times in which he lived, and assesses his extraordinary achievements.