Whitby is steeped in history and legend, from the Saxon settlement of Stenhersch, home to Abbot Hild, who turned all the snakes in town to stone, to its whaling heritage and the story of William Scoresby's escaped polar bear. I am.
But perhaps the strangest tradition in Whitby's history is the legend of the Penny Hedge, which legend says dates back to 1159.
The story goes that on October 16th, three noblemen were hunting and tracking a boar outside Whitby. The wounded boar entered the hermitage where a lonely monk lived in Eskdale. Seeing the hunters, he closed the door on Ralph de Percy, William de Bruce, and their friend the nobleman with the freeholder name known as Allatson.
However, the men, determined to obtain their prey despite being denied entry, broke in and attacked the monk, leaving him dead. As the monk lay dying, the abbot of Whitby was summoned to pass judgment on the murder of the nobleman.
The abbot heard what had happened and, in front of the monks, decided to grant the hunters forgiveness rather than punishment, with one condition. The men, who wanted to avoid execution and run for their lives, agreed to the terms.
Afterwards, I received an explanation of the condition.
Every year, a man and all his descendants must perform a ritual on the eve of Ascension Day. The ritual involved the creation of a small hedge woven from hazel stakes to be planted on the eastern shore of Whitby's harbour.
This short hedge had to be strong enough to withstand three tides.
If the hedge was not intact or remained upright through three tides, the man and his family would be stripped of part of their land in the future.
There were more rules…
The hedge had to be hewn from the timber of Eskdale, where the monk had been murdered. The wood for the hedge also had to be cut with a knife, and it cost just a penny. Hence the name “penny hedge”.
Below is a photo of the ceremony taken in 1906.
The hedges also had to be built at 9am.
What's interesting is that the tradition still continues and has been for hundreds of years.
Local residents, some of whom live on land owned by former aristocrats. Once the hedges are in place, horns are blown and the crowd shouts, “Attack on you, attack on you, attack on you.”
Ascension Day was chosen to ensure that the tides would not affect the construction of the hedge, but in 1982 unseasonably high tides prevented this tradition from taking place for the first time since 1159. According to legend, this means breaking penance, and this tradition continues to this day.
