Anglo Saxon Kirkdale
Kirkdale from its founding in about
685 CE to the beginning of the Scandinavian period in about 800 CE
Foundation
of Kirkdale
The precise
circumstances under which a church of the Anglo Saxon period was established at
Kirkdale are unknown. By about 685 CE, it seems likely that the early church at
Kirkdale was dedicated to St Gregory, Pope Gregory who sent Augustine’s mission
to England in 597 CE.
When King
Edwin of Deira fell at the Battle of
Hatfield Chase near Doncaster on 12
October 633 just north of Doncaster, this marked the effective end of Deiran kingship. Edwin’s body was temporarily placed in a porticus
or chapel then also dedicated to St Gregory in York
and later completed by his successor Oswald. His body was then moved to be
finally buried at Whitby again in a porticus
also dedicated to Gregory. The archaeologists have speculated that as the
journey from York to Whitby would have taken more than a day, and as Kirkdale
is at about the mid way point, it is possible that
his body lay there temporarily. This would suggest an association of Kirkdale
with the Kings of Deira and with St Gregory and the Roman church from as early
as 633 CE. Whether or not there was a primitive church there by 633 CE, there
may have been a close association of this place with Gregory the conceiver of
the English nation, after Edwin’s conversion in 627 CE, and his final journey
in 633 CE.
Whilst there
may have been some continued subdivision of the local area into new estates,
the locality of Kirkdale at this time was in well regulated
and well used landscape. The Vale of Pickering was a self
contained area, which was not directly on the north south route through York, but accessible to the North Sea. Hovingham continued to be an
administrative centre. Kirkdale was therefore well protected from the more
troublesome border areas and it was a suitable place for agricultural and
religious prosperity. The lands around Kirkdale are unusual in being an area of
settlement which have not been subject to constant renewal.
The Church
might have been established at the time of the establishment of a new cemetery
or there may have been an existing burial practice, so far undetected by
archaeology. It was most likely to have been built to be a church, without an
associated monastery. Although there were natural resources in the immediate
vicinity, the risk of flooding was probably not favourable to a permanent
monastery settlement.
It is most
likely that the sponsors of the new church were from the social elite and they
probably lived elsewhere, perhaps in Kirkbymoorside.
Its
foundation probably followed that of Lastingham
in 659 CE and it was likely to have been associated with the monastery there,
though that relationship might have changed over time. The two locations are
only six kilometres apart. The sculpture suggests that there might have been an
association with Lastingham and Hovingham as important saint rich
centres, although it is possible to interpret Kirkdale sculpture as rivalry
with these places.
Dedication
to St Gregory was unusual, but there seem to have been strong links between the
Deirans and Pope Gregory. This was probably the
consequence of Edwin’s conversion and Oswiu’s subsequent decision at Whitby in 664 CE to favour the
Roman traditions.
It is
significant that Bede reported Gregory’s encounter with a Deiran
boy in Rome, about to be sold into slavery and is said to have referred to his
nationality as Angli, in his word play with angels;
his word play with De Ira; and its King Aella’s association with Alleluia. This
suggests some linkage between Deira and the Deiran
king and Pope Gregory.
Another link
with St Gregory is that Cedd, the founder of Lastingham was described by Bede to have
baptised the king of East Anglia at Rendelsham in a
church also dedicated to St Gregory. This might also reinforce some linkage
between Cedd, Lastingham and Kirkdale.
Dedication
to St Gregory might link Kirkdale to a period of general conversion in the area
from about 569 CE and might also have emphasised the direction of the English
church’s association with Rome after the Synod of Whitby in 663 CE.
|
The
founding of a Celtic Christian monastery by Cedd, 2 km from the entrance to
Farndale. |
|
The
momentous agreement at Whitby, 30 km northeast of Farndale, which resolved
incompatibilities between Roman and Celtic Christian traditions, and placed
Britain onto the European stage. |
If the
foundation of Kirkdale was an attempt to foster unity following the Synod of Whitby, it seems likely
to have been founded in the years following the Synod. Cedd had died in 664 CE. Perhaps the church was
founded by his successor and younger brother Chad, say in the late 660s.
There is a
local legend that the original intention was to build the church near Nawton and Wombleton, but a
stone, chosen to mark the spot, was mysteriously found the next morning in
Kirkdale. It was moved back to the intended site, but once again returned to
the dale. So the church was built there. The story was later recorded in the
diary of a schoolmaster of Appleton le Moors, F C Dawson, in his entry after a
visit to Kirkdale on 14 June 1843.
There is
also a possible association of Kirkdale with Cornu Vallis. The Latin
name Cornu Vallis described a horn-shaped valley (cornu means
‘horn’, though cornu vallis can also translate
as ‘corner of the valley’), aligning with the topography of Kirkdale. The name
might also suggest an association with cattle. Augustine’s mission was likely
to have included instruction from Gregory to Christianise places of formerly pagan
shrines. Kirkdale might already have been a known meeting pre-Christian place. Cornu
Vallis is referred to as a place where Abbot Ceolfrith
of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow visited in 716 CE, and this might suggests links
between Kirkdale and the Tyne valley and Jarrow which might have bridged
several generations. Ceolfrith
had been a monk at Gilling and Ripon, and had an association with the area. Ceolfrith was born in around 642 CE in Northumbria. In 674
CE, Ceolfrith founded the twin monasteries of
Wearmouth and Jarrow, which have also been associated with Cornu Vallis,
along the River Wear in Northumbria. These monasteries became centres of
learning, culture, and religious devotion.
Cornu Vallis has also been associated with Hornsea on the East
Coast of Yorkshire, Spurn Head and with Bass Rock on the Firth of Forth. The
exact location of Cornu Vallis remains debated.
The creation
of a church at Kirkdale has been attributed to the Laestingas,
an elite family of the Deiran Kingdom, potentially
associated with a larger area than Lastingham
itself. Perhaps the parishes of Lastingham, Kirbymoorside,
Kirby Misperton and Kirkdale, comprised the much larger territory of the Laestingas, and the original parish of Lastingham,
later divided into several smaller areas.
It is likely
that Kirkdale also had a close relationship with Kirkbymoorside. The location
of Kirkbymoorside and Kirkdale, at the edge of the dales, was more like that of
Kirkdale than Lastingham. Kirkbymoorside was slightly better placed in terms of
water supply, protection from flooding, land based resources and higher
surveillance points, which made it more suitable as a central place. By the
late eighth century, a coin find suggests that Kirkbymoorside was sharing in
the monetary economy which has been evidenced between Whitby and the Humber.
It may well
be that relationships between Kirkdale, Kirkbymoorside and Lastingham were more fluid and not fixed.
Kirkdale’s
foundation coincided with the emergence of the original parish churches. A
parish was a district that supported a church by payment of tithes in return
for spiritual services. Some churches were linked to manor houses and others
originated as the districts of missioning monasteries. The church at Whitby was near a major settlement, whilst the
church of St Gregory’s at Kirkdale was located more remotely in a dale. By
1145, Kirkdale was described as the church of Welburn. Recent excavations tend
to confirm the view that Kirkdale began as an important church.
In contrast
to the trackless moorland wilderness haunted by wild beasts and outlaws where Lastingham was built, in Kirkdale, an
ancient route from north to south descended out of Bransdale to form a
crossroads with an ancient route from west to east along the southern edge of
the moors. Travellers needed shelter, medical attention and perhaps spiritual
fortification. It may well have been to provide these Christian ministrations
and to teach the gospel in the region that a small community of monks or a
priest was established there as a minster dedicated to Gregory the Great, who
had become an English Apostle. The two finely decorated stone tomb covers,
generally agreed to date from the eighth century, hint that this early church
had wealthy patrons, perhaps royal patrons.
The first
church at Kirkdale was a minster, and might have been the mother church for the
region. It may have included a chancel, a rarity for Anglo-Saxon churches.
The Friends
of St Gregory's Minster Kirkdale suggest that at least one of the 8th century
patrons may have been venerated locally as a saint.
The three
fragments of Anglo-Saxon cross shafts built into the church walls date to the
9th and 10th centuries.
The local
community
It is
assumed in the early Anglo Saxon period, that all land was ultimately held by
the King, but was gradually dispersed, but by the ninth century CE the land was
held by a broader elite, as the political structure gradually changed. Kirkdale
was probably sponsored by the social elite. A structure on the north east side
of the church may have been associated with burial and there may have been
sequences of burial and building.
The scale of
building at Kirkdale is evidence that local economic activity was robust to
support the elite who were benefactors of new religious building work. The
foundation of Kirkdale would have required the sourcing of stone and its
transportation on viable routeways, its cutting to the required sizes, the
tools to do this, and the manufacture of wood for scaffolding and mortar. This
could have been achieved by central control, but may have involved a number of
landowners.
This was the
time when the Old English Beowulf was told
orally as an epic poem.
A
cultural crossroads
By 750 CE
there was a reference to the pope being involved in land distribution relating
to to Stonegrave, Coxwold
and Donemuthe (probably on the Tyne), which involved
the Archbishop of York and his brothers, one of whom was the king of
Northumbria. It is likely that Kirkdale would have had contact with Alcuin’s church of York which by that time
was a very significant intellectual status, with an important library.
|
Alcuin
and the birth of modern education The
world of Ecgbert and Aethelbert, successors to Bede, and their pupil Alcuin,
who took York’s powerhouse of knowledge to the court of Charlemagne to
pioneer the European educational system |
|
Deirian and Northumbrian York, a political,
cultural and educational Hub on the European stage |
By the eighth
century, the kings and the church were part of a socially stratified society,
with political and economic control in the hands of an elite. The Kirkdale
archaeologists have found evidence of symbolism and the burial of special
dead, so in the middle Anglo Saxon period, Kirkdale likely had a
significance as a place in the surrounding hierarchy. Kirkdale might have been
attached to a local estate and the presence of the church at Kirkdale must have
been a spiritual force which consolidated local hierarchies, providing social
cohesion. It must have been an important expression of Christianity which would
have created local identity.
Artefact GL2
Kirkdale
probably had an important relationship by the eighth century with what was by
then perceived as the past. This might have been visible in its use of earlier
Roman materials and as a symbol of enhanced associations with Christian Rome,
including through its dedication to St Gregory. The archaeologists have
identified blown glass (artefact GL2) in the Roman fashion which might suggest
a continuation of techniques from the Roman period. There may have been an
importance of Romanitas, a Latin word, first
coined in the third century CE, meaning "Roman-ness" a link with
things Roman, the collection of political and cultural concepts and practices
by which the Romans defined themselves.
Early
ninth century
Important
sculptural artefacts of the late eighth and early ninth centuries have been
found at Kirkbymoorside and Kirkdale.
|
Ornate sarcophagus lids and Saxon artefacts to be
found in Kirkdale Minster and embedded into its walls which will transport
you to the Eighth century. |
By this time
minsters were associated with pastoral care. What is thought to have been part
of an ecclesiastical chair at Kirkbymoorside suggests that it might have been a
mother church, reinforced by its dedication to All Saints. So Kirkdale might
have answered to Kirkbymoorside by this time. Perhaps Kirkdale became dependent
upon the secular aristocratic centre of Kirkbymoorside, whilst possibly having
a continued relationship with Lastingham.
Lastingham,
Kirkbymoorside and Kirkdale might have been three separate and autonomous
units.
Lastingham,
Kirkbymoorside and Kirkdale might have been interconnected with Lastingham, a
major ecclesiastical centre, with Kirkbymoorside a secular and ecclesiastical
dependent and Kirkdale an ecclesiastical dependent. Perhaps Kirkbymoorside
comprised a secular estate with Lastingham a dependent monastery, perhaps
suitable for transhumance or seasonal grazing of livestock, and Kirkland a
dependent church. Alternatively perhaps there was an ecclesiastical estate at
Lastingham, a secular estate at Kirkbymoorside, each having an influence over
Kirkdale.
Kirkdale was
most likely to have been the stable heart of a potentially flourishing economy,
with a governmental framework in which a strongly aristocratic church would
have played an important political role, including in Kingship. Churches would
have played an important political role in contemporary power politics.
The Vale of
Pickering came to have a significant concentration of religious establishments.
The
significant artefacts excavated relative to this period have been found in
excavations to the north of the church, at the west exterior, and in Trench II
adjacent to the northern churchyard wall at the southern edge of the northern
field. These finds are probably late eighth century and possibly early ninth
century. These objects were associated with the early church, from which they
had become displaced during later reconstruction. What survives is a tiny
fraction of the original stone built structure – stone, glass and lead items
which were able to withstand decay. It could be imagined that there would also
have been non organic objects including altar cloths, vestments and paintings,
which are no longer present. The presence of items such as glass suggest a
contemporary active nexus of exchange. They could have been newly acquired or
recycled.
The
Parish of Kirkdale
It seems likely
that the parish of Kirkdale, as opposed to the church itself, originated in a
process of fragmentation of a once much larger unit of ecclesiastical
administration, which had its hub in Kirkbymoorside.
The pastoral
organisation of the Anglo-Saxon church within each diocese was focused upon the
institution of the minster. Our modern word Minster is derived from the Old
English mynster, itself a derivation from the
Latin term monasterium, which is also of
course the ancestor of our word monastery. By monastery we
usually understand something like a community of monks vowed to living
according to a monastic rule, cut off from the world the better to devote
themselves to prayer and worship. The Anglo-Saxons sometimes used mynster in this sense, but more often they
understood something rather different by it. The typical Anglo-Saxon minster
was a community of clergy who discharged pastoral functions over a wide area
round about which could embrace many square miles and several villages or
hamlets. It was an institution ideally adapted to the early days of English
Christianity when there were limited resources. These early minsters were more
like mission stations.
By the early
eleventh century, there was a period of fragmentation into smaller parishes, as
the landed classes built village churches for their tenants staffed by
individual priests whose pastoral responsibilities were restricted to the
territory of the particular village itself. These smaller units became the
parishes which in most rural areas were retained from the shape and boundaries
which they acquired in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
This
evolution was complicated in much of the north and east of the country by the
disruption caused by the Viking attacks and subsequent Scandinavian settlements
of the ninth and tenth centuries. Whatever status Kirkdale might have enjoyed
as a pastoral centre in the Anglo Saxon period, it appears that by the eleventh
century the main ecclesiastical centre in this area was at Kirkbymoorside.
Orm's great estate with its nucleus at Kirkbymoorside had a number of outliers
attached to it. Some of these settlements evolved into separate parishes, for
example Kirby Misperton. Kirkdale seems to have shared this evolution, but
unlike places like Kirby Misperton, its church was not built at a nucleated
village because none existed in the dale.
The wider
parish came to consist of a scattering of small hamlets and isolated farmsteads
including Welburn, Skiplam, Nawton,
Muscoates, Sunley Hill, Wombleton,
and others. Others such as Walton and Hoveton have
since been lost.
or
Go Straight to Chapter 4 – Anglo
Saxon Kirkdale
If your
interest is in Kirkdale then I suggest you visit the following pages of the
website.
· The community in Anglo Saxon
Times
· The Kirkdale Anglo Saxon
artefacts
· The church in Anglo Saxon
Scandinavian Times
· The community in Anglo Saxon
Scandinavian Times
You might
also like to read more about:
· Alcuin
and the birth of modern education
You will
find a chronology, together with source material at the Kirkdale Page.