COLDINGHAM PRIORY, Berwickshire.
The picturesque village of Coldingham, with the remains of its ancient priory, lies in a small valley about 3½ miles eastward from Reston Railway Station, and within a mile of the sea.
The great precipice of St. Abb’s Head, overlooking the German Ocean, is only a few miles off. It is believed that Ebba, daughter of the Northumbrian King Ethelfrid, and sister of King Oswy, in the bright days of that kingdom, about the middle of the seventh century, founded the monastery of Urbs Coludi, or Coldingham. There Ethelrida, Queen of Egfrid, took the veil, and she afterwards founded the church and monastery of Ely, of which she became abbess.[194]
The Convent of Coldingham was several times sacked by the Danes, and after its destruction by them in 870, it remained desolate till it was restored in 1098 for a colony of Benedictines.
Fig. 397.—Coldingham Priory. Plan.
The foundations of an early church with an eastern apse were found in excavations made in 1854. The outlines of this early church, as shown on a plan prepared by Mr. Hunter, in 1858, for his history of the priory, are drawn in outline on Fig. 397. These were, doubtless, the remains of the church erected in 1089. It had the circular apse of the early Norman churches.
The Priory of Coldingham was refounded at the above date by Edgar, son of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret. His charter is still preserved at Durham. The church was dedicated to St. Cuthbert and St. Ebba, and granted by Edgar to St. Cuthbert’s Canons Regular of Durham, in acknowledgment of assistance he had received from England. It was colonised by Benedictine monks, sent to it by the abbot of Durham.