Saint Alkelda (, "healing spring"; died on 28 March c. 800), also spelt Alcelda or Alchhild, was ostensibly an Anglo-Saxons princess of whom almost nothing is known and whose existence has been questioned.[ (quoting William Grainge (mid 19th century)]
Alternative origins
Legend has it that she was an Anglo-Saxon princess,
[John Blair (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Alan Thacker and Richard Sharpe, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 511 ff.] and probably also a
nun, who was strangled by pagan
Vikings women during Danish raids in about 800 at
Middleham in
Yorkshire. She is patron of the church at
Giggleswick and also of that of
Middleham, the church there having a holy well, but of no others. She may have been in addition
abbess of a monastery at Middleham. In 1389, the Lord of Middleham Manor received a crown grant to hold a weekly market and yearly fair on the feast of St Alkelda.
The area is known for its many springs, some very near the sites of these churches. With no documentary reference to this saint until the late Middle Ages, it has been surmised that the name Alkelda is a corruption of an Old English word, haligkelda, meaning holy spring.[ Secret Britain, Automobile Association, January 1987. ] However, this has been contested,
Her feast day is 28 March.
St Alkelda’s Way
St Alkelda’s Way is a self-guided pilgrimage walk of 33 miles that runs from Giggleswick to Middleham through the Yorkshire Dales National Park,
[ "St Alkelda’s Way", British Pilgrimage Trust] and pass the remains of
Coverham Abbey.
[ "St Alkelda's Way", The Long Distance Walkers Association]
External links
