Sacred Geography - Kirkham Priory
Introduction
Kirkham Priory lies on the banks of the River Derwent, at Kirkham,
North Yorkshire, England, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It is not far from York or the coast, and the ‘Pickering basin’, a once huge glacial lake.
The river Derwent flows from north to south, away from the sea, in a large loop round the priory.
So an unusual location.
The site consists of the ruins of Kirkham Priory itself, once an Augustinian monastery,
along with its monastic precinct, three fishponds, and the precinct boundary.
The ruins are now Grade I listed and in the care of English Heritage.
The site as a Cosmic Egg
The abbey is enclosed on all sides by high hills forming an egg shape
in other words the abbey was placed in the centre of a ‘cosmic egg ‘
and is as a consequence a site based on sacred geography.
A river almost encircles the entire central site [Water],
and if the ‘fishponds’ are linked together, Water entirely surrounds the centre.
Thus the hills represent Earth, then there is Water and on the central portion were Air and Fire symbolically,
along with the cosmic centre, the Unmoving Mover.
This appears to have been a sacred site long before the monastery was built,
having been chosen for its position and symbolism.
Very little of this area was drained then and Kirkham may even have been on an island,
close to what was then marshland and the sea, making it especially precious symbolically.
The Terrifying Invasion of the Angles
England or the Land of the Angles came into existence about 500 AD when, after the Romans left,
the western Germanic tribe the Angles invaded - with horrendous brutality in the north,
now described as ‘ethnic cleansing’.
It is called the Dark Ages for a reason as some very large sacred sites were destroyed.
This is the time of King Arthur and the 12 sacred tribes of the ancient Britons or Brythons,
who were driven west by the invaders.
King Arthur led the defence of Britain against the invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
We are told that “The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources,
including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas”.
Saint Augustine
St Augustine's mission came to the UK around AD 597 with the aim of spreading Christianity.
Called “Augustine of Canterbury”, he is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.
He was the prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory [left]
chose him [right] in 595 to lead the mission to Britain to ‘Christianize’ King Æthelberht.
Æthelberht was King of Kent from about 589 until his death.
Kirkham Priory was not founded until the 1120s,
thus 500 or so years had elapsed before this new religion reached the north.
Meaning that Kirkham might have been chosen for its sacred connections,
but been found in ruins, as many previously sacred sites were.
Eventually, monasteries became the centre of both religious and secular life in the British Isles
gaining immense wealth and political influence.
And this was why Henry VIII dissolved them.
Kirkham was surrendered on 8th December 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Keeping Arthurian values alive?
Some 225 monasteries belonging to the Order of Saint Augustine were eventually built.
The Augustinians were not monks, but rather communities living under the rule of Saint Augustine,
who undertook much valuable work in the parishes, running alms houses, schools and hospitals.
Thus perhaps more of the older Arthurian values were kept alive than we may think,
and the other clues are to be found in what is left of the gatehouse and its sculptures.
On the left is a sculpture of ‘Saint George and the Dragon’.
On the right, the remains of ‘David and Goliath’.
both have considerable symbolic significance other than that in the Bible.
We must never break the chain.