Hartlepool Abbey
 Location within County Durham
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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Established | 640CE |
| Disestablished | c.800CE |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Hieu, Aidan of Lindisfarne |
| Important associated figures | Ælfflæd of Whitby, Hilda of Whitby |
| Site | |
| Coordinates | 54°41′42.43″N 1°10′53.59″W / 54.6951194°N 1.1815528°WCoordinates: 54°41′42.43″N 1°10′53.59″W / 54.6951194°N 1.1815528°W |
| Grid reference | NZ5285033650 |
Hartlepool Abbey, also known as Heretu Abbey, Hereteu Abbey, Heorthu Abbey or Herutey Abbey, was a Northumbrian monastery founded in 640 CE by Hieu, the first of the saintly recluses of Northumbria, and Aidan of Lindisfarne, on the Headland Estate of Hartlepool now called the Heugh or Old Hartlepool, in County Durham, England.
Built in the early Saxon style, it was likely a walled enclosure of simple wooden huts surrounding a church.
Hartlepool was a double monastery. It was a joint-house of both monks and nuns, presided over from 640-649 by Hieu, the first female abbess to ever be put in charge of such an institution. Hilda ruled men and women,Bede speaks of male students in the monasteries of the Abbess Hilda, and there are male names on the head stones, and male interments in the cemetery.
Most of the priests were from the 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.
Hieu was selected by Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne in 640 to found and run a new abbey at Hereteu. After Hieu left for Tadcaster in 649, Hilda (later Hilda of Whitby) was appointed second abbess of the abbey by Bishop Aidan.
When she arrived, there were some serious problems with the monks living there. Hilda organised it so that everyone had to pray, work and rest according to a clear timetable.
In 655, King Oswiu of Northumbria sent his one-year-old daughter Ælfflæd to stay with Hilda, "to be consecrated to God in perpetual virginity", 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, taking with her Ælfflæd and ten nuns. Hilda was now technically abbess of both monasteries, but she lived at Streaneshalch.
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Wikipedia