Planting of the Penny Hedge 2025: The dark history behind one of Whitby’s oldest annual traditions that transcended generations
The Planting of the Penny Hedge will take place in the east bank of the River Esk in Whitby on Wednesday, May 28 this year. Construction begins at 8.40am.
The ancient tradition involves people of Whitby building a hurdle or short hedge made up from hazel branches and plant it in the harbour on the eve of Ascension Day.
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Hide AdIt must be completed before 9am and withstand three tides. There is a dark history associated with the tradition.


History behind ancient Whitby tradition of Planting of the Penny Hedge
It all began in 1159, when the Abbot of Whitby enforced a penance on three hunters, and future descendants thereafter.
The penance was imposed as a punishment for murdering a hermit at Eskdale.
The hunters were following a wild boar near Whitby and when the boar escaped to an hermitage at Eskdale, the nobles by order of the hermit monk living there, closed the door on the hounds. The hunters killed him.
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Hide AdJust before he died, the hermit said he would forgive them and spare their lives if they and their descendants would enact a penance.
Every year since, on the eve of Ascension Day, they had to construct a short hedge from stakes woven together and the instructions stipulated that a knife “of a penny price” was to be used.
The ceremony is still performed in Whitby annually by the occupiers of the land formerly owned by the Abbot.
A horn is sounded and followed by the cry “Out on ye! Out on ye! Out on ye!” or “Out on ye - for the heinous crime on ye.”
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Hide AdThe date of the ceremony is 38 days after Easter Sunday as this made it easier to predict that the tides would be low by 9am each morning since Easter Sunday is regulated by the moon and it dictates the tides.
It has been carried out every year except in 1981 due to the tide being too high.
The tradition is thought to have dated back to a ritual known as Horngarth; this was a requirement of tenants to maintain the hedges that divided their lands, otherwise they would forfeit them to the Abbot of Whitby.
The Penny Hedge legend is a major plot point in Robin Jarvis’s children’s book The Whitby Child.
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