Cornu Vallis, the Horned Valley

Horn Nab (to the right) jutting into Farndale with the West Gill valley in the centre

The Horned Valley associated with Abbot Ceolfrith of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow before his final journey towards Rome and its possible link with Kirkdale

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Ceolfrith (pronounced see-al-frith)

Ceolfrith was born in about 642 CE to a noble family. His father, like Benedict Biscop who founded Monkweathmouth-Jarrow, served as a comitatus (part of the royal retinue) of King Oswiu. He was encouraged into monasticism by his brother Cynefrid, so in about 660 CE Ceolfrith joined the monastery of Ingetlingum.

When he was almost eighteen, he elected to put aside his secular garb and become a monk; so he entered the monastery that is situated in the place called Ingetlingum (Life of Ceolfrith, Anonymous, Chapter 2).

According to the Anonymous Life, Ceolfrid began his religious life at a monastery called Ingetlingum, which has been interpreted as Gilling (Journeys from Jarrow, Richard Morris, 2004 Jarrow Lecture, page 19).

The beginnings of an ecclesiastical aristocracy are apparent in Deira in association with Oswine’s memorial at Gilling. Its founding abbot, Trumhere, was a kinsman of Ealflæd and Oswine; he was afterwards appointed bishop in Lindsay. Ceolfrith joined Gilling at the beginning of his career. His brother Cynefrid and their kinsmen Tunberht had previously been abbots of Gilling. Cynefrid left to travel to Ireland. Following an outbreak of plague in 661, Ceolfrid and Tunberht transferred to Ripon, with Wilfred by then its abbot. Tunberht became bishop of Hexham in 681. Whether Wilfred was related to Ceolfrith and Tunberht is not known - it seems likely - but he was from an elite family, with a father of sufficient standing to have entertained the king's retinue, and his association with sub king Alhfrith suggests Deiran origins. (Northumbria AD 367-867, Max Adams and Colm O’Brien, 2025, page 134).

Gilling had been founded about a decade before on the urging of Eanflæd, the wife of King Oswiu of Northumbria, as an atonement after the Bernician King Oswiu was responsible for the murder of his rival and kinsman, the Deiran king Oswine. Gilling was the monastery also known as Ingetlingum founded by Oswiu after the Battle of Wilfaresdun or Wilfar’s Hill in 651 CE, about ten miles north-west of the village of Catterick (vico Cataractone) (Ecclesiastical History, Bede, Book 3, Chapter 14).

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica relates that a conflict between King Oswiu of the Bernicians (r 642 to 670) and King Oswine of the Deirans (r 644 to 651) resulted in the foundation of a religious community at a place called Ingetlingum. To atone for this crime, Oswiu founded a religious community at Ingetlingum under the control of an abbot called Trumhere. Cynefrith, brother of Ceolfrid of Jarrow, and their kinsman Tunberht were later abbots of the community. (Locating Ingetlingum and Suthgedling: Gilling West and Gilling East, Thomas Pickles, Northern History, Volume 46, Issue 2, 2009, page 313). In fact Ceolfrith was not an abbot of Ingetlingum, but a novice monk and later priest.

Trumhere was abbot of Ingetlingum from 651 CE, but had left to become Bishop of the Mercians by 658 CE. Ceolfrith’s brother Cynefrith may have been Trumhere’s successor.

There are two Gillings in the North Riding known respectively as Gilling West (near Richmond and closer to the scene of the battle) and Gilling East, closer to York (Eoforwic), and only ten kilometres southwest of Kirkdale. There is debate as to which Gilling was the location of Oswiu’s monastery. This is explored further below.

In 664 CE, Oswiu presided over the Synod of Whitby and after listening to the debate he decreed that Roman practices of Christianity should be adopted and his kingdom became linked to Rome and its artistic and cultural influences.

Also in about 664 CE, Ceolfrith left Gilling in search of a stricter monastery, and became associated with Wilfred, who had argued for the Roman association at Whitby, and in due course Ceolfrith was ordained as a priest at Ripon. Tumberht, Ceolfrid and ‘not a few brothers’ (non paucis e fratibus eius monasterii) left to join the community at Ripon (Pickles, ibid, page 316). This raises the possibility that Ingetlingum was abandoned by a large group of its monks at this time. This was also about the time when his brother, Cynefrith, died of plague, perhaps in the plague of 664 CE.

In 672 CE, Benedict Biscop was given land at Wearmouth by the new Northumbrian King, Oswiu’s son, Ecgfrith. Biscop founded the monastery of St Peter’s there. Sometime after this, he asked Ceolfrith to join him, as his assistant.

In 679 CE Bede joined the monastery of St Peter’s as puer oblatus.

In 681 CE, Benedict Biscop was given land at Jarrow. Ceolfrith may have been involved in the construction of the second monastery of St Paul’s at Jarrow, but in any event he became its head.

Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith were close, and they travelled together to Rome on Benedict Biscop’s last journey there.

In 686 CE, plague ravaged the double monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. Ceolfrith and Bede seem to have been the only monks who did not succumb to the plague, and they tended the other dying and sick monks. Ceolfrith had witnessed his brother’s death from plague in about 664 CE. Bede and Ceolfrith worked closely together. Ceolfrith was Bede’s master but also became a friend.

Benedict Biscop died in 689 CE and Ceolfrith became abbot of both the monasteries of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, having been the founding head of the Jarrow community. During his abbacy, he doubled the number of books in the libraries of the double monastery.

In 700 CE Ceolfrith instructed the monks to make three copies of the biblical text, gathered from travels across Europe, into one great volume or pandectum, with two copies for Wearmouth and Jarrow, and a third, which became known as the Codex Amiatus, for delivery to Rome.

When Ceolfrith approached his final days, he resigned as abbot. He then set off to Rome to fulfil his ambition to deliver the Codex Amiatus Bible to Pope Gregory II. After crossing the river Wear at Jarrow, he left Jarrow by horse, while the monks elected Hwartberht as their new abbot.

The Life of Ceolfrith by an Anonymous Monk of Jarrow of the Eighth Century, chapter XXIX, tells of the appointment of Hwartberht as abbot of Monkwearmouth Jarrow in succession to Ceolfrith, who wrote a letter of support to Ceolfrith, which he sent with gifts to Ceolfrith who was found at Aelfberht’s monastery, which was situated at the place called Cornu Vallis.

When this was done, a large number of brothers came from the monastery of St Paul on Whit Sunday and they unanimously elected Hwaeberht to be appointed to the position of abbot. He had lived in the monastery from his earliest years and was steeped in knowledge of the Church and the monastery and already held a responsible position as priest. This man, the abbot-elect, immediately wrote a letter in which he commended his father and predecessor to the apostolic pope. Hwaeberht also prepared gifts to send, and following in Ceolfrith’s footsteps with some of the brothers he read him the letter and handed over the gifts her had brought, when he found him at the monastery of Aelberht, situated in a place called Cornu Vallis. (From the translation of the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith, Two Lives of Ceolfrith, Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, Carolinne White, 2024, The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin, 2024, pages 174 to 190).

So en route to Rome, Ceolfrith had first travelled to the monastery of Aelfberht at a place called Cornu Vallis. Whitsunday in 716 CE was on 23 May 716, so Ceolfrith left Jarrow shortly before that. It was likely that he decided to visit his homeland before his onward journey to Rome, which he knew would be his last.

Chapter XXXI of the Life of Ceolfrith went on to record that at a later date, Ceolfrith set off from his monastery on the Thursday before the Nones of June (4 June 716 CE), intending to go down to the sea by way of the river Humber. On the fourth day before the Nones of July, on the sabbath (4 July 716 CE), he went aboard ship, which made three landings before it touched the shores of Gaul. Each time he was received with honour by everydoy and treated with respect because he decided to complete the grace of long standing perfection with the incomparable example of virtue. (From the translation of the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith, Two Lives of Ceolfrith, Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, Carolinne White, 2024, The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin, 2024, pages 174 to 190)

So he left the monastery at Cornu Vallis on 4 June 716, and a month later, on 4 July 716, he boarded a ship on the Humber river, with a retinue of nearly eighty men.

He arrived in Gaul on 12 August 716. The dying monk then travelled as far as Langres in Burgundy, but he died there on 29 September 716. The Codex Amiatinus was rediscovered in the ninth century in Abbazia di San Salvatore, Monte Amiata in Tuscany. It was later kept in the Laurentian Library in Florence.

Bede was deeply affected by the death of his friend and master Ceolfrith in 716 CE (Introduction to the Ecclesiastical History, 1969, page xxi).

The age of long journeys, 650 to 800 CE

Jarrow on the mouth of the Tyne was probably a place of royal importance. King Oswine was perhaps buried at nearly Arbeia, a large Roman Fort in what is now South Shields. Indeed the extent of finds in that area suggest this may have been a Northumbrian Valley of the Kings. Jarrow was a harbour which may have been King Ecgfirth’s harbour called portus Ecgfridi. Jarrow was a communications hub beside a Roman road and an excellent harbour. Bede’s Jarrow did not exist in isolation, but formed part of a constellation of royal, monastic and commemorative places on the lower Tyne, at a point where two axes of communication met. As such it was a threshold to far away places. (Morris, 7 to 10). Benedict Biscop and Wilfred gained their royal reputation from their extensive travels to Rome and the Continent. It was at Wearmouth and then Jarrow where the royal grants of land were made.

For Northumbrian aristocracy, the century and a half from c 650 to 800 was an age of journeys. When they came of age, Wilfred and Biscop travelled abroad. They were followed in 690 by Willibrod, and in the eighth century by other missionaries. A century later Alcuin made visits to and eventually departed for the continent. The papal Legatine Mission visited Northumbria and Mercia in 786. (Morris, page 11). Travel was an apprenticeship for life and the prelude to a monastery’s foundation. Those who underwent monastic preparation abroad had the opportunity to observe leaders in different parts of Europe, and so found themselves in demand as royal advisers at home (Morris, page 12).

Horses must have been important. Wearmouth-Jarrow was an aristocratic house, and not only is it likely that horses were kept and bred for local travel, but the horses of visitors and couriers would require feeding and stabling, in turn requiring buildings, paddocks for grazing, and accommodation for ostlers. … Next to the horse, the other key to Anglo-Saxon travel was the ship. (Morris, page 16).

The location of Cornu Vallis, the horned valley – Option 1, The Humber

Cornu Vallis, where Ceolfrith rested at Aelfberht’s monastery, has generally been associated with Hornsea on the East Coast of Yorkshire, Spurn Head and with Bass Rock on the Firth of Forth. The exact location of Cornu Vallis remains debated. The notes to the 1967 translation of the Life of Ceolfrith suggest that Ceolfrith had ridden south in 716 CE towards the mouth of the Humber where they were waiting for a ship to the continent. Levisham suggests that Aelfberht’s monastery may refer to the monastery of Willinbroad’s father, Wilgils and also notes that this may have been where Ceolfrith waited for a ship to take him down the Humber estuary (England and the Continent in the Eighth Century, page 55 note 1, The World of Bede, Peter Hunter Blair, 1971, page 192). The Anonymous History of Abbot Ceolfrith, written around AD 700, recalls Ceolfrith’s voyage to Gaul. Ceolfrith took a boat from the monastery at Cornu Vallis, which can be identified as either Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast, or possibly Spurn Head (Coastal Landscapes and early Christianity in Anglo Saxon Northumbria, David Petts, Estonian Journal of Archaeology, 2009, Volume 13, pages 79 to 95).

However this is not quite right. Ceolfrith didn’t take a boat from the monastery, but after leaving the monastery travelled for a month before he embarked from the Humber.

Wilgils of Ripon, also known as Wilgisl and Hilgis, was a seventh century saint and hermit, who was the father of St Willibrord. As stories of his hermitage on the banks of the Humber estuary spread, Wilgils was granted royal patronage and founded an oratory and church at the mouth of the Humber. He is known mainly from the Life of St Willibrord by Alcuin, but is also mentioned by Bede. Alcuin wrote that Wilgils was paterfamilias of Alcuin's own family and that Alcuin had inherited Wilgils' oratory and church, suggesting a close familial relationship. Wilgils’ monastery was on the Humber, but this is why cornus vallis has been associated with him on the (possibly erroneous) assumption that the cornu vallis monastery was on the Humber.

It is not correct to say that Ceolfrith boarded his ship from the monastery. The text tells us that he set forth from the monastery and boarded his ship a month later on the Humber. This suggests that the monastery of Cornu Vallis was not on the Humber as is often suggested. (Religion, Society and Politics and the Liber Vitae of Durham, Elizabeth Briggs, 1987, page 202). It has been suggested that Ceolfrith waited at the monastery for an opportunity to sail, but this seems a less plausible explanation. It seems more likely that Ceolfrith had travelled to his homeland for a final time before he set off for the Humber, and then Rome.

Cornu Vallis was therefore probably at a location some distance from the Humber, some midway point between Jarrow and the Humber.

Aelfberht’s monastery

The Life of Ceolfrith refers to the cornu vallis monastery as Aelfberht’s monastery. I have found no other reference to Aelfberht, who was presumably its abbot.

Aethelbert who was later appointed Archbishop of York in 766 CE and died on 8 November 780 CE, was a kinsman of York’s archbishop Ecgbert and brother of King Eadberht of Northumbria (reigned 738 to 758 CE). He was a scholar and teacher, who taught scholars including Alcuin at the cathedral school in York. He was placed in a monastery as a young child before he was a pupil at York. Aethelberht was sometimes referred to as Aelbert (The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin, 2024, index).

Aelfberht was either an unknown abbot or the future archbishop of York. There is no suggestion that the monastery at Cornu Vallis was Wilgils’ monastery.

The location of Cornu Vallis, the horned valley – Option 2, Kirkdale

Kirkdale in Ryedale, close to the town of Kirkbymoorside, may have an early pagan history at a place where the Hodge Beck disappears in periods of dry weather to reappear further downstream. It is also possible that Kirkdale was a place of burial associated with the villa at Beadlam (St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Investigations and Historical Context, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts, 2021, 288).

Nearby Lastingham had been founded of Celtic/Lindisfarne tradition in 653 CE, but Kirkdale was founded after the Synod of Whitby had tied Deiran loyalty to Rome and its pope Gregory the Great. Thus when a church was founded at Kirkdale in about 685 CE, it was dedicated to St Gregory. Kirkdale and its vicinity seem to have been staunchly Roman in the Celtic-Roman debate of the mid seventh century. That is perhaps not surprising given its rich Romano-British inheritance.

Indeed Kirkdale may have already been an important Christian site prior to 685 CE. When King Edwin of Deira fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase near Doncaster in 633 CE, his body was taken temporarily to York in a porticus or chapel dedicated to St Gregory in York and his body was then moved to a porticus again dedicated to Gregory, at Whitby. It has been speculated that, since the journey from York to Whitby would have taken more than a day, and Kirkdale is about midway, Edwin’s body may have lain temporarily at Kirkdale. (St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Investigations and Historical Context, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts, 2021, 292 to 293).

Kirkdale, a minster by 685 CE, may already have been a place of ancient religious importance before that time.

minster was the English equivalent of monasterium, which was not an association with later monasticism, but to more varied types of religious establishment. So minster does not particularise the religious purpose of the original building. It doesn’t mean that it was a monastery, nor a minster in the modern sense. It may have been referred to as a monastery, though its function may have been more nuanced.

Some scholars believe that Cornu Vallis could have been at Kirkdale.

One point however remains: the likely identification of Kirkdale with Aelberht’s monastery which is located at the place called .. Cornu Vallis. The case for equating Kirkdale with Horn Vale is cumulatively powerful. If we are right in associating Gilling East with the monastery of Ceolfrid’s youth, then Horn Vale would logically lie somewhere on the route to Holderness and the Humber. For reasons already given, at some point before the eleventh century, Kirkdale, Gilling and Hovingham were closely linked. For archaeological and sculptural reasons, Kirkdale is also implicated: in particular the extraordinary tomb covers, though later in date than Ceolfrid, suggest not only that Kirkdale was a place where holy men or women were buried, but also that Kirkdale and Wearmouth-Jarrow enjoyed some close and otherwise unattested connection.

The second element of the place name Kirkdale is in the Scandinavian translation of vallis. Curiously, and perhaps coincidentally, the valley in which the church stands does curve like a horn. This is best seen from the air, but the likeness would have been apparent to travellers approaching from the north, as they descended from the moor. This view would have been familiar to travellers, since Kirkdale stood beside Rudland Rigg, a medieval trunk road that descended from the upland heath after crossing the moors from the north. This was one of the two main routes available to Ceolfrid and his party, and three miles up from it is Horn Ridge.

So much is speculative, but the association between Kirkdale and Cornu Vallis is surely settled by the fact that four centuries later the family named Cornuwala and variants like Cornuallia still existed as a personal name in the area where Kirkdale is located. In the mid twelfth century Samson de Cornuallia witnessed gifts to Rievaulx in Thornton and Staincroft and as Cornuwala in Skiplam, an area adjoining Kirkdale, Farndale and Bransdale. Samson was Roger de Mowbray’s man. Around 1160 Roger gave all of Hoveton to Rievaulx, together with four bovates formerly held by Samson. The Dean and Chapter of York subsequently attested the lands release to Rievaulx. (Rievaulx Cartulary, edited by J Atkinson, Surtees Society, Volume 83, 1889, pages 30 to 31, 40, 170 and 214 to 215).

Whether or not Gilling East was the monastery that Ceolfrid entered in his youth, the evidence points to Kirkdale as the Horn Vale where he paused in old age, on his last journey from Jarrow.

(Journeys from Jarrow, Richard Morris, 2004 Jarrow Lecture, page 23, see also St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Investigations and Historical Context, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts, 2021, page 293).

The name Cornu Vallis seems to be a reference a horn-shaped valley, aligning with the topography of Kirkdale. Cornu vallis in Latin generally translates as corner of the valley (the Latin word for horn is buccina). Latin was the usual language of the church. However the celtic name cornu nab referred to the horn shape of a ridge. Cornu vallis referred to a horn shaped valley. Cornus in its horn meaning was thus associated with earlier Celtic/Iron Age cultures and to established places of ancient importance (The name of Bernicia, D Breeze, Antiquities Journal, Volume 89, 2009, pages 73 to 79). It has been suggested that the cornu or horn might have been associated with the horn of cattle, but it seems more likely to have derived from a feature of the landscape. Richard Morris suggested a Scandinavian origin of vallis. Whether Scandinavian or Celtic, it suggests a feature of the landscape of considerable antiquity.

The horn shaped valley along the Hodge Beck in which St Gregory’s Minster lies

The continuation of the curved valley north of Kirkdale

Ceolfrith’s cornu vallis was likely to have been a place of ancient religious significance, so an Iron Age derivation is not surprising, and a place of religious significance back to the Iron Age and beyond was not unlikely.

Indeed Augustine’s mission was instructed by Gregory to be ready to deal with pagan shrines, where animals might have been slaughtered, by taking such places over for Christian use (Ecclesiastical History, Bede, Book 1, Chapter 30). The Kirkdale archaeologists have suggested that Cornu Vallis might have been associated with a well known meeting place, that could be identified by name. (St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Investigations and Historical Context, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts, 2021, page 293).

Richard Morris favoured the horn shaped valley of Kirkdale itself as the possible Cornus Vallis, but he also noticed the Horn Ridge not so far to its north.

The Horn Nab or Horn Ridge juts into Farndale, about 9 kilometres north of Kirkdale. It is an ancient place with tumuli and other features dating to at least the Bronze Age. Its name derives from Celtic cornu.

Below the crag are the farms of Knaysbeck and Keysbeck which were settlements in the Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian period and were likely to have been occupied prior to that. They lie in the valley of the West Gill Beck, overhung by the Horn Nab. Most of Farndale was wilderness forest but this corner of the valley seems to have been occupied from a much earlier time, accessed from the Rudland Rigg, and the waingate route. Whilst Farndale was a forested wilderness, the higher ground of the West Gill valley which lies just below Rudland Rigg and the Horn Nab, seem to have been occupied from much earlier times, presumably accessed from the cross moors route of Waingate, which passed adjacent to the valley and Horn Nab.

A number of ancient routes across the moors headed towards Cleveland from Kirkdale and its vicinity. Thurkilisti passed immediately adjacent to Kirkdale, whilst the Waingate route joined nearby Kirkbymoorside across Rudland Rigg overlooking Farndale, and on to Baysdale Abbey and Guisborough. It became a pilgrim’s route in time, and may have been used as such for many centuries before the founding of Baysdale Abbey and Gisborough Priory.

A traveller from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow was likely to have followed the Waingate route if travelling across the moors to the lands around Kirkdale, Gilling East and Ceolfrith’s possible homeland. Shortly before arriving at Kirkdale on horseback, such a traveller would have passed Horn Nab, the horned ridge jutting over the valley below it, which may have been a place of some importance after crossing the wilderness of the moors. From there, on horseback, Ceolfrith and his retinue may have descended to Kirkdale and arrived there within about an hour. A horse typically trots at speeds between 8 to 12 miles per hour.

About 9 kilometres apart, Kirkdale and the Horn Valley, may have had a close association, accessed along Waingate.

Ceolfrith had been a monk at Gilling and Ripon. If the monastery of his youth had been Gilling East, then the lands around Kirkdale was his homeland. A place of ancient religious importance may have been an obvious location for Ceolfrith to head to prior to his final journey to Rome. Indeed Kirkdale seems to have been a place strongly Roman Christian culture in the Celtic-Roman debate and Ceolfrith, Benedict Biscop, Wilfred, and later Bede were all most certainly in the Roman camp in the Roman-Celtic debate. So this may have been a return to his homeland. Indeed it is suggested that this was a journey intended to reconnect him with the places of his youth (Lastingham and its sacred landscapes, I Wood, 2008 Lastingham Lecture). Gilling East is only ten kilometres to the southwest of Kirkdale.

The location of Kirkdale is also consistent with the length of time Ceolfrith took before he boarded ship on the Humber.

The location of Ceolfrith’s Gilling

Whilst the traditional view is that the monastery founded by Oswiu where Ceolfrith stayed for a while before his journey towards Rome was at Gilling West, north of Richmond, Richard Morris and Ian Wood advocate that it was located more likely to have been at Gilling East. Thomas Pickles is more sceptical and advocates that the traditional view linking Ingetlingum with Gilling West is more likely. If indeed the location of the monastery founded by Oswiu in 651 CE and attended by Ceolfrith between about 660 to 664 CE was at Gilling East, close to Kirkdale in the Vale of Pickering, this would tend to reinforce the association of Kirkdale and Cornu Vallis.

Gilling East sees a break in the higher ground between the Howardian and Tabular hills, forming a natural routeway out of the Vale of Pickering and onwards to the Vale of York and the main Roman roads. This site, at the edge of the Deiran coreland, seems the more probable location for an assertive and politically charged statement of Deiran kingship than Gilling West. Its church as a sculptural fragment built into the south chancel wall of the present church. Scroll moulding, minimal foliage and the rigidity of its medallions associate this stylistically with the 8th century Acca’s Cross in Hexham. (Northumbria AD 367-867, Max Adams and Colm O’Brien, 2025, page 142; Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture III: York and Eastern Yorkshire, J Lang, 1991, British Academy, Gilling East).

The case for Gilling East (Journeys from Jarrow, R Morris, 2004 Jarrow Lecture, Monasteries and the geography and power of Bede, Ian N Wood, Northern History, Volume 45, Issue 1, page 17 and 18).

When Ceolfrid left Jarrow on his final journey, he had arranged for a ship to meet him at the mouth of the Humber. On the way he stops at a monastery headed by a certain Aelberht at an unidentified place called cornu vallis, ‘horn vale’. After Hwaetberht had caught up with him the journey continues. On 4 July he boards a ship at the mouth of the Humber, and this may have been from the monastery at Spurn Head (Morris page 19 to 20).

Whilst it is tempting to think that he may have decided to leave from the Humber rather than from Jarrow in order to keep his plans secret and avoid being persuaded by his fellow monks to stay, by the time he left, his plans were already known. It is also notable that the departure point on the Humber is 140 miles away from Jarrow. A possible explanation for Ceolfrid to have left from the Humber rather than simply set off directly from Jarrow is that he had farewells to make, and perhaps more consents to seek, along his way (Morris, page 20).

Since both the first and second monks of Ingetlingum were Ceolfrid’s kinsmen, it seems likely that it was at Ingetlingum that Ceolfrid had passed his childhood. Therefore we must first ask where Ingetlingum was. The name probably equates with the place names Ghellinge or Gilling that appear in eleventh century sources and today as Gilling. It has been thought that Ingetlingum was Gilling West, which is close to the battle site and was supposed to have been Oswine’s hiding place after the battle where he was betrayed and murdered. However it seems more likely that Oswine would have put more distance between him. Oswine was also betrayed by someone he believed to be a loyal friend, which suggests a site deeper into Deiran heartland, which is where the other Gilling is to be found. (Morris, page 21). Ceolfrith’s route was likely to have taken him in that direction. Gilling East is only one among a number of Anglian monasteries that stood in or close to the Coxwold-Gilling gap.

Ian Wood and Richard Morris argue that as well as groups of monasteries that follow the coast from the double monastery at Coldingham to Spurn in the south, including Whitby, Hartlepool, Wearmouth, Jarrow, Tynemouth, a hermitage on Coquet and Lindisfarne, and another group on the Lower Tyne stretching to Hexham, the group in the Vale of Pickering of which Lastingham is the most famous perhaps also linked with the coastal group of monasteries (Wood page 15).

Amongst the Vale of Pickering group, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts has shown clearly that Kirkdale was the site of an early monastery and Richard Morris has convincingly argued that it was in fact a house known from the Anonymous Life of Ceolfrid as Cornu Vallis. Ceolfrid visited this last monastery en route for Rome in 716, having given up the abbacy of Wearmouth-Jarrow. He probably knew the Vale of Pickering well. Before joining Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth, he had been a monk, first at Gilling and then at Ripon. Wood explains that after the battle, Oswine had fled to a place of hiding at Ingetlingum, after dismissing his followers. Wood doubts whether this would in fact have been so close to the battle site. He also points out that Gilling West does not have evidence of monastic sculpture earlier than the ninth century. Gilling East has sculpture that could be earlier and the association of Kirkdale and Gilling and the cornu vallis of Ceolfrith’s monastery makes more sense. These factors and the overall importance of the Vale of Pickering may suggest that this region was the central zone for the Deirans and therefore that it is the more likely site of Oswin’s murder and Oswiu’s monastery. Wood also pointed out other monasteries at the edge of the Vale – Crayke, Coxwold, Stonegrave, Kirkby Misperton and above all Hovingham. We thus have a group of five unquestionable monastic houses and three possible ones within a very tight area. Further even granted the fact that all or most land with which monasteries were endowed came from the king, the royal connections of this group are striking – they would have had a particularly significant role in offering prayers for kings and their families, and thus of preserving and celebrating their memory. Aethelwald was certainly associated with Lastingham and possibly also with Kirkdale, Gilling was founded by Oswiu in memory of Oswine, and Crayke was a foundation of Ecgfrith. (Wood Page 16 to 18, Morris page 22). Kirkdale may also have been the resting place of the body of King Edwin in 633 CE on its procession from York to Whitby.

A little to the north and east in the limestone Tabular Hills are place names like Gillamoor (‘Gilling Moor’) and Hoveton that in the eleventh century imply some earlier affiliation between Gilling and Hovingham, presumably as appurtances that had provided particular kinds of resource. (Morris, page 22).

Excavation and sculpture now suggest that religious use of the site can be traced back at least to the eight century. Excavation has yielded finds reminiscent of Wearmouth-Jarrow, whilst two richly carved stone tomb covers, one carved with the skeupmorphic likeness of textile, identify Kirkdale as a place where magnates were buried. Further Alan Thacker has pointed out that the draping of a richly woven cloth over a free standing tomb was a way of proclaiming sainthood. Such tombs were free standing, typically near the high altar, and it was normal for those in them to have earlier been buried outside, their bringing in often being arranged to coincide with the dedication of a new building. The carved palla is thus likely to denote someone exceptional and the intention, if not the actuality, of a tomb cult. (Morris, page 22). Lastingham was close by. The presence of so many houses in close proximity raises many questions. Richard Morris feels all this points to the likely association of Kirkdale with Cornu vallis.

Gilling East is only two kilometres south of Oswaldkirk, named after Oswiu’s brother, the Northumbrian King Oswald who had been slain by the pagan, Penda in 642 CE.

The fact that Gilling West is closer to Ripon, to where Ceolfrith and brethren moved, also supports the Gilling East theory (Lastingham in its sacred landscapes, Ian Wood, Professor of Early Medieval History, The Fifth Lastingham Lecture, 2008, page 14).

The case for Gilling West (Locating Ingetlingum and Suthgedling: Gilling West and Gilling East, Thomas Pickles, Northern History, Volume 46, Issue 2, 2009, pages 313 to 325).

Gedling is the linguistic root of the place name Ingetlingum. Gedling is also probably the root of the place name Gilling West (North Yorkshire) and the present village lies some seven miles north west of Catterick. It has generally been assumed, therefore, that Ingetlingum was at Gilling West. However the case for Gilling West has been assumed rather than established. (Pickles page 313).

Richard Morris and Ian Wood have acknowledged the potential case for locating Ingetlingum at Gilling West, but have constructed a plausible case for Gilling East as an alternative. (Pickles page 314).

In a separate episode of contemporary monastic history, Cuthbert was given land in Cumberland and a vill called Suthgedling by King Ecgfrith (Anonymous Historia de Sancto Cuthberto). This place has the same root with Gilling as well. This raises a possible connection between Oswiu’s Ingetlingum and Cuthbert’s Suthgedling. Close consideration of the HSC passage on Suthgedling within the context of the rest of the work suggests that when the author wrote of Suthgedling he was thinking of Gilling East. (Pickles, page 315).

However Thomas Pickles, whilst acknowledging the alterative argument for Ingetlingum being Gilling East, prefers the location of Gilling West. Of course, it remains just possible that Ingetlingum was Gilling East, but the case for this is weak by comparison, Pickles page 320). The argument for Gilling West is carefully argued by Thomas Pickles, and there follows a summary of his main arguments. These are necessarily abbreviated and the full argument is better absorbed by reading his full article.

· Bede records that the battle site of Wilfaresdun is 10 miles northwest of Catterick, but he doesn’t give a location for Ingetlingum, but only says that Oswine diverted (diverto) there. The fact that he didn’t give a location suggested that the diversion was a short one, to the vicinity of the battle site. Gilling West is 7 miles northwest of Catterick (Pickles, page 318).

· The evidence of Domesday Book suggests that Gilling West was a royal site. Whilst Gilling East lay in the heartland of the Kingdom of the Deirans and this area was a particular focus for the foundation of religious communities, by the time of Domesday Book Gilling East comprised two holdings of limited size and it was Hovingham and Kirkbymoorside by then that dominated the vicinity, not Gilling East. In contrast Gilling West was held before the Conquest by Earl Edwin. Gilling West was apparently a royal centre controlling a wider territory of obligation, which was on loan to an earl in the eleventh century; its mother parish is likely to be a relic of the relationship between an early religious community and the territory of obligation within which it was founded. (Pickles page 320).

· The survival of the place name Gillamoor might hint that Gilling East once controlled a wider territory, but it is equally possible that Gilling East simply had rights over an outlying patch of moorland. (Pickles 319 to 321).

· Suthgedling may have been Yetlington in Northumbria, but the best solution is that it was Gilling East. Suth might be a prefix to distinguish it from Gilling West. (Pickles page 322).

· Ingetlingum was more likely to have been at a peripheral location. Richard Morris and Ian Wood have emphasised the reciprocal relationship between power and the topography of religious patronage; in particular they have drawn attention to the significance of the Tyne valley and the Vale of Pickering as strategically important sub regions that were foci for unusually dense concentrations of religious communities. Indeed, it was in considering the density of religious patronage in the Vale of Pickering that they proposed the relocation of Ingetlingum from Gilling West to Gilling East. However Thomas Pickles feels that placing Ingetlingum at Gilling West does not undermine the importance of the Vale of Pickering. In 651 CE, Oswiu’s control over Deira was still very limited and there is no recorded monastery in the territory of the Deirans recorded before 651 CE (Lastingham was founded two years after Ingetlingum in 653 CE). Granting royal land to found a monastery was a political act. Granting land to a Deiran which lay on the border of the territory between the Bernicians and the Deirans and which was of extremely high strategic value was a signal of trust between two peoples: Gilling West, its soke estate and its mother parish dominate the junction between three Roman roads, leading south into the Vale of York, north to the Bernicians and west over the Pennines into British territories,. Taking the opportunity presented by these events provided a way for an outsider to introduce monasticism into a subject territory, but at the periphery rather than at the heart of that territory: indeed, given the circumstances, it may only have been acceptable at a peripheral location. (Pickles page 325).

Discussion

We cannot be sure whether the location of the monastery of Ingetlingum was Gilling West or Gilling East. Both sites have revealed archaeological evidence of early religious activity. The case for Gilling West is primarily focused on its proximity to Oswine’s murder after the battle of Wilfaresdun. I am more persuaded that the monastery was founded in more central Deiran territory, closer to York. I’m less persuaded by the political incentive to found the monastery at the periphery. Although Oswiu was reestablishing a Bernician claim over Deira in 651 CE, there is evidence that suggests that Kirkdale may have been a place of importance for the Deiran royalty from as early as Edwin’s death in 633 CE, even if only a resting place for Edwin’s body en route to Whitby. By its dedication to St Gregory in about 680 CE, after the Deiran adoption of the Roman form of Christianity, Kirkdale and its vicinity was clearly a place firmly rooted in the newly accepted Roman traditions. Gillamoor may have been associated with Gilling, and Oswaldkirk with King Oswald. Cuthbert’s Suthgelding is generally agreed to have been Gilling East which seems to support rather than contradict the association of Gilling East with the monastery.

It seems particularly persuasive that in the twelfth century, the family named Cornuwala and Cornuallia subsisted in the vicinity of Kirkdale, suggesting that cornu vallis was indeed a name associated with the region, and therefore a likely site for the monastery visited by Ceolfrith.

If Ingetlingum, Ceolfrith’s first monastery, was indeed Gilling East, this strongly supports the theory that Ceolfrith was returning to his homeland, to say farewells before his final departure towards Rome. If his first monastery was at Gilling West, this does not exclude the possibility that Aelberht’s monastery at Cornu Vallis was still Kirkdale. The term monasterium, was not always an association with monasticism, but to more varied types of religious establishment. By 716 CE, Kirkdale was certainly at the centre of Roman Christian culture, close to the Deiran capital.

Given the vicinity of a cornu or horned ridge jutting into the edge of the valley which is a branch of Farndale, this may support the theory that this was Ceolfrith’s horned valley, and Kirkdale, the monastery loosely defined as a minster. Cornus vallis may have described the valley of Kirkdale itself, and/or the nearby Horn Rigg, an antique place which has left reminders of its past back to at least the Bronze Age, overlooking its own valley. Kirkdale may have been associated with Cornu Vallis, and cornu may have been chosen to describe several features of the local landscape.

Kirkdale is thus a place in a likely locality, probably Ceolfrith’s homeland, likely to have been referred to as the horned ridge close to the Kirkdale and Lastingham monastery/minsters.

If Kirkdale is the Cornu vallis where Ceolfrith spent his time before travelling a month to embark from the Humber on his final voyage towards Rome, then we can draw a number of deductions about Kirkdale and its vicinity.

Kirkdale’s association with Cornu vallis reinforces Kirkdale’s importance as a place of ancient religious significance, adjacent to the Waingate and Thirkilisti routes, in the homeland of Ceolfrith. Though the minster was founded in about 680 CE, Kirkdale may have been the temporary resting place of King Edwin in 633 CE, and a prior pagan site, and perhaps associated with burials from the Beadlam estate in Roman times.

Kirkdale’s association with Ceolfrith might suggest an association between Kirkdale and the double monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow at the mouths of the Tyne and Wear and as an important religious site in the wider context of early Northumbrian Christianity.

There may have been some religious association between Kirkdale and Horn Ridge adjacent to Waingate and overlooking Farndale. By the time of the Domesday Book, Kirkdale, which we know from its sundial had been rebuilt by Orm in about 1055, was in the possession of Torbrand, son of Karli. Torbrand may have been of the same family as the priest of Kirkdale church, Brand. As Orm’s primary interest in Kirkdale is evidenced by the sundial, this seems likely to have been some form of secondary interest to Orm’s, but Torbrand was recorded in the Domesday Book as the effective owner. Bransdale is Brand‘s dale, and is probably associated with the same family. We therefore have an association between Kirkdale and both Farndale and Bransdale, suggesting they were all part of the same political entity.

The Domesday Book evidence and the eighth century evidence of the association between the horned valley, Ceolfrith and Kirkdale, all support the thesis that the wider estate of Kirkbymoorside comprised Kirkbymoorside, Kirkdale, the berewicks nestled at the northwest corner of the Vale of Pickering, as well as the wilderness lands of the moors and dales to the north. The estate of Kirkbymoorside was a place of Anglo Saxon significance.

Bibliography

Locating Ingetlingum and Suthgedling: Gilling West and Gilling East, Thomas Pickles, Northern History, Volume 46, Issue 2, 2009, pages 313 to 325.

Lastingham and its sacred landscapes, I Wood, 2008 Lastingham Lecture.

Journeys from Jarrow, R Morris, 2004 Jarrow Lecture.

The name of Bernicia, D Breeze, Antiquities Journal, Volume 89, 2009, pages 73 to 79.

Two Lives of Ceolfrith, Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, Carolinne White, 2024, Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin, page 174 to 190.

Monasteries and the geography and power of Bede, Ian N Wood, Northern History, Volume 45, Issue 1, page 17 and 18.