b'Ealdred of St Edith, continued his rise through the church Another of St Ediths cult followers that Goscelinhierarchy to become the Archbishop of York in 1061. tells us about in his Life of St Edith was Ealdred. HeHe attempted to combine this position with that of had a very successful career in the church, ending asBishop of Worcester, but was reprimanded for this the closest to a prince-bishop that England couldby the Pope. He probably crowned King Harold, produce 11 (according to Florence of Worcester), and it is certain Although his biography was not written, wethat King Harold left the booty which he had taken do know a bit about his life. He was a monk atfrom the Danes after the Battle of Stamford Bridge in Winchester, becoming Abbot of Tavistock in 1027. InArchbishop Ealdreds care when he marched south 1046 he was made Bishop of Worcester, which postto meet William the Conqueror in 1066. 14And it was he maintained until 1062. In that role he opposedEaldred who crowned William as King at Westminster the Welsh and Irish raiders who were ravaging theon Christmas Day.countryside, not as a fighter, but offering his supportEaldred was the last Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of to the troops. In 1056 he was involved in forgingYork. He was very generous with gifts of land to all the peace treaty with the Welsh king. He was aof his churches, and was a great builder, notably at noted pluralist, because as well as being BishopBeverley, Southwell, York and Ripon. He died on 11th of Worcester he also administered the diocese ofSeptember 1069. After his death, the Danish fleet Hereford, the diocese of Wiltshire and the abbey ofarrived in support of an uprising against the Norman Winchcombe, thus ruling a sort of ecclesiasticalconquerors, and much of York was destroyed, palatinate on the March which was politicallyincluding the Minster. The first Norman Archbishop, convenient. 12He was used as a foreign envoy forThomas I, was appointed in 1070 following the the state, travelling to Hungary, Italy and Germany asharrying of the North during which much of the area recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. north of the Humber was totally destroyed.In 1058 he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, andWe know that there was a church and a priest in while crossing the Adriatic a storm blew up and heBishop Wilton in 1086, as it was listed in Domesday experienced the same near-disaster as King Canute.Book. The south door and the chancel arch are In terror of being ship-wrecked he called upon EdithNorman, but it is probable that there was a wooden his fellow-citizen [and she] immediately beamed uponchurch on the site before the first stone building. What him and said: I am Edith, and suddenly restoredmore likely than that it was erected at the instigation of calm; he proclaimed this when he returned to his ownthe last Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of York?country. 13 We know that he was a follower of the cult of St Edith of Wilton, and when he was made Archbishop Bishop Wilton of York he would discover that he owned a manor and It was reading the sentence quoted above in aland at a place called Wilton. He was known to be a book called Writing the Wilton Women that providedgenerous man who gave land to the church and paid the link between Bishop Wilton and Wilton in Wiltshire.for the construction of churches. We have here all the Ealdred, former Bishop of Wiltshire and veneratorpieces of the puzzle of the dedication of the church at Bishop Wilton to St Edith of Wilton.11 F Barlow, English Church, 1000-1066 (1963 ), p 8612 Barlow, op cit, p 8713 M Wright & K Loncar, The Translation of Edith (2004) p7814 J M Cooper, The Last 4 Anglo-Saxon Archbishops of York (1970) p 26Worsendale: Gated RoadT his photograph, discovered at a postcard fair, came from a set taken of someones cycling tour of the East Riding. You can just see a bicycle against the gate across Worsendale Road. The chalk pit is in the background to the left. When did it cease to be gated? Does anyone know?224 BULLETIN 13'