Kirkdale, Lastingham and Bede: A Note

Abstract

KIRKDALE IS AN ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH, set in the Vale of Pickering, but close to its junction with the North Yorkshire Moors. It is a church that has a precise point of dating for one phase of its structure, the eleventh-century sundial inscription, set externally above the south door of the nave. It also has earlier sculpture and archaeological phases that pre-date the eleventh century, and it is thought to have been part of a pre-Conquest monastery.1 Unlike nearby Lastingham, which is referred to in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Kirkdale cannot unambiguously be recognised in written work of this period. Richard Morris, however, has recently argued that its pre-Viking age place-name occurs in the Anonymous Lives of the Abbots, that it was the Cornu Vallis, which Ceolfrith visited on his final departure for Rome. The purpose of this note is to suggest another, indirect, way of approaching Kirkdale, via the Ecclesiastical History. Lastingham, which is less than 10 km away from Kirkdale and can be argued to have been closely connected with Kirkdale,3 features in the Ecclesiastical History both as a source of information (in the preface, it was a source, through Cedd and Chad, about the Mercians and the East Angles) and also as a place because of its role in the activities of Cedd and his three brothers. The latter references occur in III.23, immediately following the detail (at the end of III.22) of baptism by Cedd of Swildhelm, son of Sexbald at Rendlesham. Bede does not give the dedication of Rendlesham, but it is known from other sources to be St Gregory. Kirkdale Church is also dedicated to St Gregory. It is this dedication, given Rendlesham and Lastingham’s close proximity in Bede’s narrative, which provides a silent link with Kirkdale, physically close to Lastingham. At Kirkdale, this dedication can only be followed back until the eleventh century. Such a late recognition may also be true of Rendlesham; but in the context of Cedd himself, his presence at both Rendelsham and Lastingham in Bede and the description of Lastingham that immediately follows in the Ecclesiastical History, this link should be taken at face value.