Peterborough monastery is said to have been attacked and destroyed by Viking invaders, most likely the ‘Great Heathen Army’ led by ‘Ivar the Boneless’ which invaded East Anglia this year. Some scholars have disputed the veracity of this event, but given the similar treatment meted out to other abbeys locally at this time the Viking attack seems credible. A relic of this original monastic church is the ‘Hedda Stone’ displayed in the Cathedral today.
After it's destruction by vikings in 870 the monastery on the site is re-founded by the authority of King Edgar the Peaceful and Bishop Aethelwold of Winchester as a Benedictine Religious house. Aethelwold had a series of dreams and visions encouraging him to set out and refound the abbey, although he initially got lost and ended up in Oundle instead! Further visions put him on the right track and he rebuilt the abbey on its previous site.
A township starts to spring up to the eastern side of the monastic precincts, and the whole is bounded by a ditched and embanked burgh wall. Within a century, the monastery’s wealth increased dramatically, so it is often nicknamed ‘Guildenburgh’ – the ‘Golden Borough’.
