Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery founded in 657 by the Anglo-Saxon King of Northumbria Oswiu (642-670). In 867 the abbey was ruined by the Vikings and then abandoned. William of Percy, a feudal baron, ordered the refoundation of the abbey in 1078, which was done by Regenfrith, a soldier monk who dedicated it to St Peter and St Hilda. This second monastery was destroyed by Henry VIII of England in 1540 and the abbey buildings fell into ruins, serving as a stone quarry and a landmark for sailors.