Editing Whitby (section)

===Priests and harrying===
Whitby was known in the Anglo-Saxon period as ''Streoneshalh'', meaning "Streon's nook of land". The modern name, which first appears in the [[Domesday Book]], means "Hvíta's farmstead", from Old Norse ''Hvítabýr''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=A. H.|title=The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire|year=1928|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=13, 126|url=https://archive.org/details/placenamesofnort0005ahsm/page/126}}</ref>

A [[Whitby Abbey|monastery]] was founded at Streoneshalh in 657&nbsp;AD by King [[Oswiu of Northumbria|Oswiu or Oswy]] of [[Northumbria]], as an act of thanksgiving, after defeating [[Penda of Mercia|Penda]], the [[Paganism|pagan]] king of [[Mercia]]. At its foundation, the abbey was an Anglo-Saxon "double monastery" for men and women. Its first abbess, the royal princess [[Hilda of Whitby|Hild]], was later venerated as a saint.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bede |title=The Ecclesiastical History of the English People |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1994 |editor-last=McClure |editor-first=J. |pages=150–151 |author-link=Bede |editor-last2=Collins |editor-first2=R.}}</ref> The abbey became a centre of learning, and here [[Cædmon]] the cowherd was "miraculously" transformed into an inspired poet whose poetry is an example of [[Anglo-Saxon literature]]. The abbey became the leading royal nunnery of the kingdom of [[Deira (kingdom)|Deira]], and the burial-place of its royal family. The [[Synod of Whitby]], in 664, established the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman]] date of Easter in Northumbria at the expense of the [[Celtic Church|Celtic]] one.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England |publisher=Blackwell |year=1999 |editor-last=Lapidge |editor-first=Michael |pages=155,&nbsp;472 |display-editors=etal}}</ref>

The monastery was destroyed between 867 and 870 in a series of raids by [[Viking]]s from [[Great Heathen Army|Denmark]] under their leaders [[Ivar the Boneless|Ingwar]] and [[Ubba]]. Its site remained desolate for more than 200 years until after the [[Norman Conquest]] of England in 1066.<ref name="vch">{{cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp506-528 |title=A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2 – Parishes: Whitby |publisher=British History Online |year=1923 |editor-last=Page |editor-first=William |series=[[Victoria County History]] |pages=506–528 |access-date=5 September 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020010035/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64701 |url-status=live }}</ref> After the Conquest, the area was granted to [[William de Percy, 1st Baron Percy|William de Percy]] who, in 1078 donated land to found a [[Benedictine]] monastery dedicated to [[St Peter]] and St Hilda.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hinson |first=Colin |title=GENUKI: Whitby History |url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Whitby/WhitbyHistory.html |access-date=4 October 2011 |archive-date=4 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604182147/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Whitby/WhitbyHistory.html |url-status=live }}</ref> William de Percy's gift included land for the monastery, the town and port of Whitby and [[Church of Saint Mary, Whitby|St Mary's Church]] and dependent chapels at [[Fylingdales|Fyling]], [[Hawsker]], [[Sneaton]], [[Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby|Ugglebarnby]], [[Newholm-cum-Dunsley|Dunsley]], and [[Aislaby, Scarborough|Aislaby]], five mills including [[Ruswarp]], [[Hackness]] with two mills and two churches.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dugdale |first=William |date=1817–1830 |title=Dugdale's Monasticon Volume 1 |url=http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/MatrixBooks/Dugdale/Volume1/Dugdale-Monasticon%20%28Vol.%201%20Part%2013%20Whitby%29.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911182534/http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/MatrixBooks/Dugdale/Volume1/Dugdale-Monasticon%20%28Vol.%201%20Part%2013%20Whitby%29.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2011 |access-date=12 August 2011 |website=Monasticon Anglicanum: a History of the Abbies and other Monasteries, Hospitals, Frieries, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, with their Dependencies, in England and Wales}}</ref>

When the [[Domesday Book]] was compiled in 1086, Whitby was recorded being partially waste and a small settlement lying within the [[Langbaurgh Wapentake]] of Yorkshire.<ref>{{OpenDomesday|NZ9011|whitby|Whitby}}</ref> Further details reveal the state of Whitby's economic and agricultural decline (when compared with its pre-Conquest state under [[Siward, Earl of Northumbria|Earl Siward]]) which were due to the depredations of [[William the Conqueror]]'s army during the [[Harrying of the North]] in 1069–70.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Andrew |date=2019 |title=A History of Whitby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=myVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22 |location= |publisher=Phillimore & Company Limited |isbn=9780750990370 |access-date=28 May 2023 |archive-date=21 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321141749/https://books.google.com/books?id=myVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In about 1128 Henry&nbsp;I granted the abbey [[burgage]] in Whitby and permission to hold a fair at the feast of St Hilda on 25 August. A second fair was held close to St Hilda's winter feast at [[Martinmas]]. Market rights were granted to the abbey and descended with the [[Liberty (division)|liberty]].