Crayke

Coordinates: 54°07′42″N 1°08′27″W / 54.1283°N 1.1409°W / 54.1283; -1.1409

Crayke is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England, about two miles east of Easingwold.

History

There is evidence that there has been a settlement here since the times of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The village is named in the Domesday Book as Crec, part of the Yarlestre hundred and noted as belonging to the Bishop of Durham.

The parish was formerly a detached part of County Durham (until 1844), due to its connection with St Cuthbert and the Diocese of Durham, which owned Crayke Castle.

The seventh-century king Egfrid granted Crayke to the church in 685 to be used by Cuthbert on his visits to York, to which end Cuthbert founded a monastery here. Cuthbert died in 687AD. The monk Aediluulf wrote a poem Carmen de Abbatibus between 803 and 821 about the history of his monastery, and some scholars propose that the monastery, which was in the circle of Lindisfarne, was in Crayke. (For instance, Michael Lapidge in Anglo-Latin Literature 600-899, Hambledon Press, London 1996) According to the chronicler Symeon, the Northumbrian King Aelle appropriated Crayke and used it as his headquarters during the unsuccessful campaign against the Danes in 867. He also reports that when the congregation of St Cuthbert was wandering homeless during the seven-year period 875-882 the monks remained four months at Crayke.