Hartlepool Abbey was a Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

n monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 founded in 640 CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

 by Hieu, the first of the saintly recluses of Northumbria, and Aidan of Lindisfarne

Aidan of Lindisfarne

Known as Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Aidan the Apostle of Northumbria , was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the Anglicised form of the original Old...

, on the Headland Estate

Headland Estate

The Echo's Hill or Headland Estate is a residential area of Hartlepool, County Durham, which is situated in the North East of England.It made the headlines in July 1994 in connection with the murder of Rosie Palmer, a local toddler....

 of Hartlepool

Hartlepool

Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...

 now called the Heugh or Old Hartlepool, in County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Construction and early days

Built in the early Saxon

Anglo-Saxon architecture

Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England, and parts of Wales, from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing...

 style, it was likely a walled enclosure of simple wooden huts surrounding a church. It was a joint-house of both monks and nuns, presided over from 640-649 by Hieu, the first female abbess to ever be put in charge of such an institution. In 649 after Hieu left for Tadcaster

Tadcaster

Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England. Lying on the Great North Road approximately east of Leeds and west of York. It is the last town on the River Wharfe before it joins the River Ouse about downstream...

, Hilda (later Hilda of Whitby

Hilda of Whitby

Hilda of Whitby or Hild of Whitby was a Christian saint and the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby...

) was appointed second abbess of the abbey by Bishop Aidan. In 655, King Oswiu of Northumbria

Oswiu of Northumbria

Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...

 sent his one-year-old daughter Ælfflæd

Ælfflæd of Whitby

Saint Ælfflæd was the daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria and Eanflæd. She was abbess of Whitby Abbey from the death of her kinswoman Hilda in 680, first jointly with her mother, then alone.Most of Ælfflæd's life was spent as a nun...

 to stay with Hilda, "to be consecrated to God in perpetual virginity", an important gesture. Hilda stayed at Hartlepool Abbey until 657 or 658 when she became founding abbess of Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey is a ruined Benedictine abbey overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. It was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the auspices of Henry VIII...

, then called Streoneshalh.

Impact

A village was founded around the monastery in the 7th century, marking the earliest beginnings of the modern town of Hartlepool. However, after Hilda left Hartlepool Abbey it, and the village surrounding it, is not mentioned again in any known sources until the 12th century, and appears to have declined in importance until it was finally either sacked and destroyed by Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

s around 800, or possibly simply abandoned.

Excavations

No trace of the monastery remains today, though the monastic cemetery has been found near the present-day St Hilda’s Church

St Hilda's Church, Hartlepool

St Hilda's Church, Hartlepool, is in High Street, Hartlepool, County Durham, England . It is a Grade I listed building.Clifton-Taylor includes it in his list of "best" English parish churches and describes it as "a glory of...

. It is the most extensively explored of all the Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

n monasteries of the 7th and 8th centuries, beginning in 1833 when workmen building houses on the headland found human burials and Anglo-Saxon artefacts. A namestone found during this excavation can be found on display in St Hilda's Church. Significant finds are still being unearthed to this day. Hartlepool Abbey was featured in a March, 2000 episode of Time Team

Time Team

Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining...

, called "Nuns in Northumbria", where bones and a book clasp were found.