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'''Hartlepool Abbey''', also known as '''Heretu Abbey''' or '''Hereteu Abbey''', was a [[Northumbria]]n [[monastery]] founded in 640 [[Common Era|CE]] by [[Hieu]], the first of the
== Construction and early days ==
Built in the early [[Anglo-Saxon architecture|Saxon]] style, it was likely a walled enclosure of simple wooden huts surrounding a church. It was a joint-house of both [[monk]]s and [[nun]]s, presided over from 640-649 by [[Hieu]], the first female abbess to ever be put in charge of such an institution.<ref>Archaeologia Aeliana, xix, 47.</ref>
Most of the priests were from the [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic church]] who had travelled to Northumbria from Ireland or the Isle of [[Iona]]. Others had arrived as part of the Pope's mission to Britain. <ref>Proud, K., 2007. Nuns who played key roles in helping the nation to get the abbey habit. ''News for Medievalists'', Available at: [http://www.circles-wijngaardsinstitute.org/tm.aspx?m=5006&mpage=10 Circles - Wijngaards institute for Catholic research, Message #192]</ref> In 649 after Hieu left for [[Tadcaster]], Hilda (later [[Hilda of Whitby]]) was appointed second abbess of the abbey by Bishop Aidan. In 655, King [[Oswiu of Northumbria]] sent his one-year-old daughter [[Ælfflæd of Whitby|Ælfflæd]] to stay with Hilda, "to be consecrated to God in perpetual virginity",<ref name="Bede lib. iii, c. 24.">[[Bede]], ''[[Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum]]'', lib. iii, c. 24.</ref> an important gesture. Hilda stayed at Hartlepool Abbey until 657 or 658 when at Aidans behest she became founding abbess of [[Whitby Abbey]], then called Streoneshalh.<ref>[[Mattew Paris]], Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), i, 302.</ref><ref name="Saxon Houses">[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=39877 "Saxon Houses: including Wearmouth and Jarrow"], ''A History of the County of Durham: Volume 2'' (1907), pp. 79-85.</ref> The [[monastery]] then disappears from [[history]], and it is possible that it either ceased to operate or that it moved to and became the nucleus of [[Whitby Abbey|Hilda's new foundation]].
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== Excavations ==
===1883===
No trace of the monastery remains today, though the monastic cemetery has been found near the site of present-day [[St Hilda's Church, Hartlepool|St Hilda’s Church]]. It is the most extensively explored of all the [[Northumbria]]n monasteries of the 7th and 8th centuries
Multiple female skeletons were found lying in two rows at a depth of 3.5 feet. Their heads were upon flat stones as pillows with larger stones inscribed with [[Anglo-Saxon runes]] and crosses above.<ref name="handbook">1873. [http://www.mocavo.com/A-Handbook-for-Travellers-in-Durham-and-Northumberland/380039/133 A Handbook for Travellers in Durham and Northumberland]. J. Murray, page 116</ref> One of the namestones found during this excavation can be found on display in St Hilda's Church. In consultation with the [[British Archaeological Association]], several were identified. These included Heresuid and Bregesuid (or Breguswith), respectively the sister and the mother of St Hilda, Frigyd, the abbess of [[Hackness]], and Hildilid, Eadgyd and Torchtgyd, respectively abbess and nuns of [[Barking Abbey]].<ref name="handbook"/>
===2000, Time Team===
Significant finds are still being unearthed to this day.<ref name="teesarch"/> Hartlepool Abbey was featured in a March, 2000 episode of archaeological television programme ''[[Time Team]]'',<ref name="timeteam"/> called "Nuns in Northumbria", where bones and a book clasp were found.
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
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