The part of the church you can still see has a very long and complicated history, it’s been built then destroyed then built again several times, but the short version is that the original Coldingham Priory was built in 1098, then destroyed by King John of England in 1216. It was replaced with a much more magnificent church. The replacement was mostly destroyed in 1545, but the Choir, which is the part you can still see, survived. Oliver Cromwell damaged the building you can still see extensively in 1650, but it has since been repaired and still stands today.

Are Aebbe’s abbey and Coldingham Priory linked?

There was a gap of about 300 years between when Aebbe’s monastery was burned down and when Coldingham Priory was built, but although they are separate there is a strong tradition of religious sites being built on top of, or nearby to, earlier religious sites, so the fact that Coldingham Priory was built here gives weight to the idea that perhaps Aebbe’s monastery was in this area too.

This project is a partnership between the Friends of Coldingham Priory and DigVentures. Together, our aim is to locate the original monastery founded nearly 1,400 years ago by Aebbe.

The Friends of Coldingham Priory have been instrumental in caring for the archaeology at the priory for years, and they have already carried out geophysical and metal detecting surveys of the field we will be excavating, which has made for some very exciting analysis.