WHITBY

 Of course, everyone knows Whitby Abbey, and its' connections with Dracula, but there is much more to this little fishing town.

Just below the Abbey ruins, is the church of St. Mary and its graveyard. From there down to the cobbled streets and the harbour below, there is a flight of 199 steps! (Not too bad going down - different matter walking back up!)

The town is divided in two by the River Esk and the harbour. 

The Abbey ruins sit high on a cliff overlooking the town, and the atmosphere, even without knowing Bram Stoker's story, is menacing.

The abbey, which was built on the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery from 657AD, was built in the late 11th. century, extensively rebuilt in the 1220s, and dissolved at the order of Henry VIII in 1539.

The original Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded on the instructions of King Oswy of Northumbria, who was a Christian ruler. He had defeated a pagan adversary called Penda, two years earlier. In thanks to God, he dedicated some of his money, and his daughter Aelfled, to a life of monastic service. The new Royal Monastery was placed under the leadership of Abbess Hild.

Less than a decade later, Whitby was considered important enough to host to the major Synod of Whitby in 664AD. At that point, most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England were, at least nominally, Christian. However, there was more than one type of the faith being followed. The main two strands were 'Celtic' - being brought over from Ireland, and 'Roman' - usually held by the more southerly kingdoms, where the Romans had first landed, and then settled. Oswy called the Synod to decide which path was the one to follow. Oswy came down on the side of the Romans, a decision which brought him in line with the rest of Western Europe. By unifying religion throughout the kingdome, this also laid the foundations for a more unified kingdom.

Sadly, there is very little left of Oswy's first building. The Vikings pretty much obliterated it. However, the memory of the abbey's past importance was enough to convince the Normans that it should be refounded.