When beginning my work experience, I was originally interested in finding out the heritage of my street and house of St. Hilda’s Terrace. I was directed towards Alan Appleton’s Whitby Timeline and found it was originally called “New Buildings”. Instead of having house numbers the houses had titles, which my house was given the title of “The Red House” due to the bright red bricks they were originally built with. However, gradually over the space of the 18th-19th century, house names changed to house numbers largely driven by the growth of the postal service and the street formally know as “New Buildings” changed to “St Hilda’s Terrace” in 1855, and this posed me the question of, who was St Hilda and why was she so influential? I was given a one of the green boxes filled with leaflets and booklets about the history of Whitby Abbey.
Mike helping Eden with her research on St Hilda’s Terrace.
Who was St Hilda and why she was so influential? St Hilda was a Saxon nun from the years 614-680; the first Abbess of Hartlepool and a close acquaintance to King Oswy of Northumbria and it was he that gave her the position of presiding over Whitby Abbey with his daughter Princess Aelfleda, who became her loyal student and successor (presiding over Whitby Abbey after St Hilda’s death for a further 30+ years, which is rarely reflected about!) St Hilda’s goodwill and good management of the monastery soon became famous as a place of learning and religious importance; including a haven to a ‘cow-herder’ poet Caedmon – England’s earliest great poets – allowing him the space and sanctuary to create his poems until his death in A.D.680. Whitby Abbey became an extremely influential place and is the burial ground of many Saxon monarchs including King Edwin of Deria, King Oswy of Northumbria, Queen Eanfled and Princess Aelfleda.
A series of plays on the Fish Pier…
One of the leaflets that caught my eye was a pamphlet commemorating the life of St Hilda through four different plays as part of the 1300-year anniversary of her becoming the Abbess of Whitby Abbey. The four plays where preformed at “Fish Pier, Whitby harbour”. In my opinion, the leaflet gives a simple timeline of her life:
A leaflet about the four plays from the Whitby Abbey Green Box (WHIT/E1/E1.6/4)
Synopsis of the Plays taken from the leaflet:
A.D.614- The first describes the prophetic dream which came to her mother, Berguswith, the night before Hild was born, had a dream of light and hope which illuminated the dark background of circumstances, as Hild’s family where refugees, her farther had been recently murdered by his enemies and there seemed little hope of his return.
A.D. 648- Thirty-four years later Hild could look back on the restoration of her family to their native land their reestablishment as rulers; the conversion of the kingdom to Christianity but, also on the darker picture of a second exile the loss to a great extent of the new found faith then the light shone out once more when Hild who had found her fulfilment in the acceptance of a religious vocation was recalled to the restored kingdom and installed as the mother of a religious community at Hartlepool.
A.D.657- War and desolation again filled the scene but Osway, King of Northumbria was eventually victorious over his enemies and in pursuance of a vow he made gave land to the church and his baby daughter to the service of God for both resolves he sought cooperation of Hild and so she came to Whitby.
A.D. 680- After ruling her monastery there for 23 years during which the light of her goodness and wisdom spread far and wide, as had been foretold, she passed to her eternal rest and vision of her passing was vouchsafed to one of her nuns the same Begu who had preceded her as mother to the community of Hartlepool.
I think St Hilda accomplished so much in her life and became a hugely influential female member of the church and an inspirational role model; an incredibly powerful woman of her time and shaped Whitby into what it is today.
Tales of St Hilda
I had heard tales about St Hilda: snakes, ammonites and dreaming nuns, so went exploring the folklore books in the library.
Information regarding the tales about St Hilda were taken from this book found in our Folklore collection
A famous folklore is the legend states how St Hilda rid Eskdale of an abundance of unwelcome snakes! It is said she cursed the vipers in Latin, the snakes became demented and were driven off the edge of the cliffs! It seemed they were not willing to throw themselves over, and when they reached the edge, they turned round and hissed at St Hilda. She then lashed out with her whip, decapitated them and sent their headless bodies hurtling over the cliff on the Scar below where they all immediately turned to stone! It is said they can be found today on the Scar when the tide is out, as visible and tangible proof of the legend as “ammonites”.
Another known legend of St Hilda was the Dream of Begu. On the night St Hilda died a nun called Begu, at the convent in Hackness, all of a sudden heard the sound of a bell, when she was in the dormitory with her holy sisters. Opening her eyes she saw the roof of the house laid open, and a glorious light coming in through the top of the open roof. Begu was astonished as she saw the soul of St Hilda ascend to heaven. After awakening, and seeing the other sisters asleep, she perceived that she had seen a vision. Begu then immediately ran to the virgin who presided in the monastery and started crying to her that their Abbess, the Lady Hild, the mother of them all, was departed out of this world.
A TV show!
Not connected to the library and archive but worth a mention St Hilda isn’t only recognised and celebrated by the local people of Whitby but the show “The Last Kingdom” has the character “Hild” who is a resilient nun, loyal friend and advisor to the King – sound familiar? Despite it being 200 years out of the timeline and St Hilda not being a “warrior nun” the character is heavily influenced on our St Hilda.
By Eden (Sixth Form Student – Prior Pursglove College)
If you are interested in looking through our Whitby Abbey Green Box or reading the Folklore books please pop in to see us. We are open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm.
