St Hilda (continued)

Much of what we know about St Hilda comes from the Venerable Bede, the first historian of the English, and most of it is a factual telling of her life and work. There are however a few legends, which may or may not be based on fact. And with fake news all the rage at the moment, who is to say!!

It is said that there was in Whitby a plague of evil snakes and serpents.  Hild got rid of these by throwing them off the Abbey Cliff and they turned to stone in the heat of her anger. This was a medieval explanation of the spiral fossil Ammonites found in the rocks below the cliffs. With this legend in mind, Victorian geologists named one local species after her – Ammonite hildroceras. Today Whitby’s coat of arms displays three of St Hilda’s Serpents. She herself is often shown with serpents by her feet.
 
This compilation:
*   Photos of the only Ammonites (actually impressions of Ammonites) that
     I could find today, although I’m sure we have collected many more over
     the years.
*   Then there is the Whitby coat of arms with the Ammonites (on Whitby’s
     swing bridge)
*   The carving from Caedmon’s Cross – snakes under Hild’s feet.
 
   
KathGordon has told me some interesting things about the Abbey Church in Hartlepool, which is dedicated to St Hilda, and is thought to have been built on the site of the original abbey that she was abbess of before going to Whitby. I feel another trip coming on!