Saint Alkelda | |
|---|---|
 St Alkelda's Church, Giggleswick | |
| Died | c. 800 Middleham, North Yorkshire |
| Feast | 28 March |
Saint Alkelda (Old English : Hǣlcelde, "healing spring"; died on 28 March c. 800), also spelt Alcelda or Alchhild, was ostensibly an Anglo-Saxon princess of whom almost nothing is known and whose existence has been questioned. [1]
Legend has it that she was an Anglo-Saxon princess, [2] and probably also a nun, who was strangled by pagan Viking women during Danish raids in about 800 at Middleham in Yorkshire. She is patron of the church at Giggleswick and also of that of Middleham, the church there having a holy well, but of no others. She may have been in addition abbess of a monastery at Middleham. In 1389, the Lord of Middleham Manor received a crown grant to hold a weekly market and yearly fair on the feast of St Alkelda.
The area is known for its many springs, some very near the sites of these churches. With no documentary reference to this saint until the late Middle Ages, it has been surmised that the name Alkelda is a corruption of an Anglo-Saxon word, haligkelda, meaning holy spring. [3] However, this has been contested, [4] also with claims that she may actually have been Icelandic, from Ölkelda, and her reputation brought to Yorkshire in Northern England by Vikings, where she became associated with holy springs such as Giggleswick. [4]
Her feast day is 28 March.
St Alkelda’s Way is a self-guided pilgrimage walk of 33 miles that runs from Giggleswick to Middleham through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, [5] and pass the remains of Coverham Abbey. [6]
Ælfheah, more commonly known today as Alphege, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey. His reputation for piety and sanctity led to his promotion to the episcopate and, eventually, to his becoming archbishop. Ælfheah furthered the cult of Dunstan and also encouraged learning. He was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 during the siege of Canterbury and killed by them the following year after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed. Ælfheah was canonised as a saint in 1078. Thomas Becket, a later Archbishop of Canterbury, prayed to Ælfheah just before his murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan, Cuthbert, Eadfrith, and Eadberht of Lindisfarne. The island was originally home to a monastery, which was destroyed during the Viking invasions but re-established as a priory following the Norman Conquest of England. Other notable sites built on the island are St Mary the Virgin parish church, Lindisfarne Castle, several lighthouses and other navigational markers, and a complex network of lime kilns. In the present day, the island is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a hotspot for historical tourism and bird watching. As of February 2020, the island had three pubs, a hotel and a post office as well as a museum with vast historical importance.
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England 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. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide, was an English princess and abbess. She is credited as the foundress of a monastery later incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford. She was the daughter of a sub-king of a Mercia named Dida of Eynsham whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames.
Werburgh was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is the 3rd of February.
Middleham is a market town and civil parish in the district and county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, on the south side of the valley, upstream from the junction of the River Ure and River Cover. There has been a settlement there since Roman times. It was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Medelai.
Saint Earconwald or Erkenwald was a Saxon prince and Bishop of London between 675 and 693. He is the eponymous subject of one of the most important poems in the foundations of English literature. He was called Lundoniae maximum sanctus, 'the most holy figure of London', and Lux Londonie, "the light of London". Peter Ackroyd has said of him, "we may still name him as the patron saint of London, [his]... cult survived for over eight hundred years, before entering the temporary darkness of the last four centuries".
Giggleswick, a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, lies on the B6480 road, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of the town of Settle and divided from it by the River Ribble. It is the site of Giggleswick School. The village belonged to the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.
Alkmund of Derby, also spelt Ealhmund, Alhmund, Alcmund, or Alchmund was a son of Alhred of Northumbria, who was caught up in the kingdom's dynastic struggles.
Æthelberht, also called Saint Ethelbert the King was an 8th-century saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Little is known of his reign, which may have begun in 779, according to later sources, and very few of the coins he issued have been discovered. It is known from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that he was killed on the orders of Offa of Mercia in 794.
Wihtburh was an East Anglian saint, princess and abbess. According to tradition, she was the youngest daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, but Virginia Blanton has suggested that the royal connection was probably a fabrication. One story says that the Virgin Mary sent a pair of female deer to provide milk for Wihtburh's workers during the construction of her convent at Dereham, in Norfolk. When a local official attempted to hunt down the does, he was thrown from his horse and killed.
Urith was a Christian woman from the Westcountry of Great Britain who was alleged to have been martyred in the 8th century, and subsequently revered as a saint. The name was not uncommon in the English county of Devon. Her feast day is 8 July and her shrine is located in the North Devon village of Chittlehampton. Her name is also known in Latin as Hieritha and occasionally corrupted to Erth.
Sidwell was a virgin saint from the English county of Devon, She is the patroness saint of Exeter and sister to Juthwara.
Beorhthelm was an Anglo-Saxon saint about whom the only evidence is legendary. He is said to have had a hermitage on the island of Bethnei, which later became the town of Stafford. Later he went to a more hilly area, possibly near Ilam, where he died. Beorhthelm (Bertram) of Stafford is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church, with a feast day on 10 August.
Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba were female members of the royal family of Mercia in 7th-century England. They are venerated as saints.
Repton Abbey was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine abbey in Derbyshire, England. Founded in the 7th century, the abbey was a double monastery, a community of both monks and nuns. The abbey is noted for its connections to various saints and Mercian royalty; two of the thirty-seven Mercian Kings were buried within the abbey's crypt. The abbey was abandoned in 873, when Repton was overrun by the invading Great Heathen Army.
Osburh was a Saint in Coventry, probably Anglo-Saxon but see below. Nothing about her life has survived to the present day. Her mortal remains were enshrined at Coventry. Close to the Forest of Arden, Coventry was at that time a tiny settlement.
Hallikeld was a wapentake, an administrative division analogous to a hundred, in the historic county of the North Riding of Yorkshire. It was one of the smaller wapentakes by area and consisted of seven parishes.
The Church of St Alkelda, Giggleswick, is an Anglican church in the village of Giggleswick, North Yorkshire, England. St Alkelda's was the mother church for the extended parish of Giggleswick, until the church in Settle was built in 1838, and later became a separate parish.