Healaugh, Selby

Healaugh is a village and civil parish in the former Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 161 in 63 households. The population had increased to 249 at the 2011 census. The village is about three miles north north-east of Tadcaster.

Etymology
The placename Healaugh is likely derived from an Anglic or Saxon or Jutish word heah or similar meaning a high-level forest clearing but it has also been speculated that Healaugh may reflect the name of Hieu, a 7th-century Irish abbess who worked in Northumbria with Aidan of Lindisfarne who appointed her abbess of Hartlepool Abbey and subsequently a monastery at Healaugh, and who died at Healaugh.

History
Healaugh Park Priory was established near the village at the site now called Healaugh Manor Farm. It was founded in 1218 by Jordan de Santa Maria and his wife, Alice, who was the granddaughter of Bertram Haget. Haget had previously granted the lands outside the village for a hermitage to Gilbert, a monk of Marmoutier. It was finally dissolved in 1535. After the dissolution, it served as the Manor house, amongst whose owners were Sir Arthur D'Arcy and Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton.

Governance
The village lies within the Selby & Ainsty Parliamentary constituency. It is also within the Escrick Electoral Division of the North Yorkshire County Council and formerly in the Appleton Roebuck Ward of Selby District Council.

The civil parish is a joint parish with nearby Catterton. The joint Parish council has five members, four of which represent the village.

Geography
The parish covers an area of 3378 acre of which the village occupies 2666 acre. It lies 2.29 mi west of Askham Richard, 1.62 mi east of Wighill and 1.19 mi north of Catterton. A short distance to the east of the village is Dam Dyke which flows via Catterton Beck and The Foss into the River Wharfe near Bolton Percy.

Religion
St John the Baptist Church, Healaugh has a fine late Norman doorway of c. 1200. St Heiu, Abbess of Hartlepool, is said to have settled here as an anchoress in the 7th century; a tombstone, possibly hers, discovered at a depth of six feet was described by Daniel Henry Haigh in 1842 but is now lost. A vicar of Healaugh Charles Voysey was deprived of the living in 1871 for his heterodox views.

According to several accounts, in 1842 a broken tombstone was discovered about six foot below the surface in the kirkyard at St John the Baptist Church. It has an inscription on it which seems to show two names MADUG and HEIU (there is one letter missing from Hie (u). Similar tombstones were found in Hartlepool in 1833 in a cemetery again well under ground at about 4 feet below the surface. The similarities seem to confirm that Healaugh was the latest settlement of St Hieu, a 7th-century Irish abbess who worked in Northumbria. The Venerable Bede quotes that a nun, Hieu, founded a convent near Hartlepool, then somewhere near Calcaria (the old name for Tadcaster). ‘She established a residence for herself about 650 AD’. The West window in the Tower has a small pane of glass inscribed with the name Hieu. Sadly the broken tombstone has been lost in the eons of time. It is thought that Abbess Hieu opened a monastery or hermitage on the site of The Old Priory down the coach road about a mile or so from the village.

At the Norman Conquest the surrounding land to the church was chiefly held by a Scandinavian named Tochis, from whom it passed to the Percys and then Healaugh later came to the Haget family who, as patrons for the building of a stone church here possibly in 1150, are believed to be the couple shown centrally carved above the stone arch of the south door.

The main south door has very interesting and striking carving. A similar set of carvings surround Wighill Church Door. They are one of several known as ‘The Yorkshire School’ created about 1130s – 1150s. At the time passing through a doorway into the church was symbolic of passing through this world’s troubles into a heavenly life. The beakheads represent demons and tempters of this world, threatening those passing in and out of the church. In the lower part of the 3rd order on each side are carved heads of men interspersed with masks of beasts. Man threatened by things evil.

We have established that building of the church began in 1150 and parts of the Norman Church are still clearly visible both inside and outside. The chancel and the south door are the earliest parts still existing followed by the north aisle and the priests door which date from the last quarter of the 12th century. The church is constructed of Tadcaster stone and has been extensively restored through the ages.

The piscina for washing the communion cup on the south wall is 12th century and the sedilia in the chancel dates from the 15th century and is where the Celebrant, Deacon and Sub Deacon would have sat. The chancel arch is 12th century.

Hieu (7th century Irish Abbess)
Hieu was a 7th-century Irish abbess who worked in Northumbria and who died at Healaugh. She was foundress of abbeys at Hartlepool and Healaugh in Yorkshire England. Hieu was also the first of the saintly recluses of Northumbria, and the first known woman to rule a double monastery.

Nothing is known of her early life, until she met Aidan of Lindisfarne who appointed her abbess of Hartlepool Abbey and subsequently a monastery at Healaugh.

She died at Healaugh on 12 March of an unknown year in the 7th century. It is possible that the towns of Hartlepool (Hereteu) and Healaugh are named after her.

Hieu's memorial is kept on September 2.

Notable people

 * Hieu, 7th century Irish Abbess, after whom Healaugh may be named.
 * Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton (1495 – 23 August 1568) – resident, buried in the village
 * John Parker (Whig politician) (21 October 1799 – 5 September 1881) – buried in the village
 * Mark Westaby (born 17 April 1965), British strongman competitor – born in the village