n Edgar’s reign it was Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester
who re-founded St. Etheldreda’s monastery at Ely and
gave to it the right to present an incumbent of its choice to the benefice at Northwold. Etheldreda, incidentally, is the Anglo-Saxon original of our name Audrey. In some pedantic sources she appears as Aethelthryth, but it is the same name. The Audrey in question was a real historical person, a royal princess of the East Angles, who was twice married, but died a virgin in the obliging eyes of the church, She preferred the celibacy of a nun to the married state, and it was she who founded the monastery at Ely in 673. She died in 679, and her shrine at Ely became an important centre for pilgrims. When her monks wanted stone for her coffin they went up river to Cambridge and took what they needed from the old Roman remains on Castle Hill.