Whitby Abbey: Sandsend

I decided to stay in the next day accompanied by my C.J.Cherryh book, Harry and some cheese. Debbie and Phil walked it into Whitby. It was a very misty day, which isn't that unusual in these parts. They visited the ruined Whitby Abbey which dated back to 657AD.The last time I'd been up there it had been blowing a gale. Its first Abbess was Saint Hilda whose influential history is documented by the Venerable Bede. The Abbey has had a turbulent history, first being sacked by Vikings in 867AD and later falling fowl of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry VIII's reign.
The Abbey was also the home of Caedmon the first recorded English poet who lived and wrote here in the seventh century. The Bede also wrote about him. Caedmon's oeuvre was entirely religious and devotional, the style of which first came to him as a dream when he was working as a herdsman for the monastery.








Debbie bought a box of cream cakes and walked the full three miles or so back to Home Farm with the box held out in front of her. When she put the box down her arms were still locked in their zombie grasp position. The cakes were very nice though. She'd cooked a chicken the day before and we had a wishbone to pull. We made our wishes. I won. Which hardly matters as I expect we had the same wish anyhow.