The Penny Hedge is an ancient tradition in the English coastal town of

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. The legend dates back to 1159, when the

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Whitby imposed a

penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derive ...

on three hunters, and on their descendants for all time, for murdering a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

at Eskdale. The hunters were following a wild boar near Whitby. When the boar took refuge in a hermitage at Eskdale, the nobles set upon the monk living there, who had closed the door on the hounds. Before he died, the monk consented to forgive them and spare their lives if they and their descendants would enact a penance. Wire sculpture whitby

Each year, on the eve of

Ascension Day The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ (also called the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday) commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. It ...

, on the east bank of the River Esk in Whitby, they had to construct a short

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

from stakes woven together, able to withstand three tides. The instructions stipulated that a knife "of a penny price" was to be used. The ceremony is still performed in Whitby every year on Ascension Eve, by the occupiers of the land formerly owned by the Abbot. A horn is sounded and followed by the cry "''Out on ye! Out on ye! Out on ye!''" or "''Out on ye - for the heinous crime on ye''". The date of the ceremony on Ascension Eve, has been taken as being 38 days from Easter Sunday. With this, it was easy to predict that the tides would be low by 9:00 am each morning as Easter Sunday is decided and regulated by the moon and the moon dictates the tides also. However, in its 858 year history, the ceremony could not be completed in 1981, due to the tide being too high. Apart from 1981, the ceremony has been carried out each year (according to available documents). The tradition is said to have dated back to a ritual known as ''Horngarth''. This was a requirement of tenants to maintain the hedges that divided their lands, otherwise they would forfeit them to the Abbot of Whitby. The folk-tale about the death of the hermit, has led many writers and historians to believe this was just a story attached to the tradition of the upkeep of hedges and hedgerows.

In literature

The Penny Hedge legend is a major plot point in the children's book ''The Whitby Child'' by Robin Jarvis.

References

{{reflist Whitby Northumbrian folklore Yorkshire folklore