The winner of a poetry competition about Whitby’s Penny Hedge Tradition has been announced.
Tanya Eyre, education officer for the Hawk and Owl Trust, visited St Hilda’s Roman Catholic Primary School and West Cliff Primary school in May to talk about the Penny Hedge.
The Hawk and Owl Trust, which manages Fylingdales Moor, also launched a competition for primary aged students.
The poem had to be about the Penny Hedge tradtion and St Hilda’s Class 3 pupil Teigan Purvis was declared the winner.
Teigan’s poem was declared a “pleasure to read” and is, for the most part, historically accurate.
You can read Teigan’s poem below:
The Penny Hedge is an old but popular tradition. It all started over 600 years ago, when wild boars where exciting to find.
One day a boar was pondering the land, three men where hunting for a boar, guess it was just their lucky day.
The boar got badly injured after it got hit several times. This boar just happened to be running by a chapel.
The boar ran into the chapel to find a monk who protected the boar by standing near the door. It was
a bad idea because the monk got hit in the back with a dagger through the door. He bled so much
he could have died, but he didn’t die till two months later. Before he died he made a deal for the
three men who almost killed the boar. This was the deal, they had to build the Penny
Hedge every year on a certain day and time. The Penny Hedge had to have a certain
amount of sticks to make it. Also it had the last 3 tides. If it didn’t have these
things they would have to sell his farm and all his land, but the person
who bought his land and farm would have to build the Penny Hedge.
The two men did a job well done but the other man failed. He sold
his land, the farm must have been cursed. Then one day the
tide was up so they couldn’t do it anymore. After a while
they decided they wanted it to be a tradition so they
carried on doing it till this day. Who does it now?
The man who took care of the Penny Hedge
and someone to help him. The Penny
Hedge is held in Whitby 28th May
9am dot on the clock finish at