2010 marks the 900th anniversary of the consecration of Hyde Abbey. It was to this great medieval monastery that monks ceremonially brought King Alfred’s body in 1110, from their former home New Minster. The king was laid to rest before the newly consecrated high altar of a great stone church alongside the bodies of his wife Ealswith and son Edward. In 1538, the abbey was surrendered to Henry VIII’s commissioners, the monks pensioned off, and its treasures destroyed or dispersed. Its buildings were reduced
to rubble, and now all that remains are a magnificent stone 15th century gateway and the beautiful parish church of St. Bartholomew. But the abbey’s story lives on in precious ancient documents and beautiful objects – and the modern community that lives around its ruins in the streets of Hyde.

The Hyde900 festival kicks off with a major exhibition of the abbey’s ancient treasures, plus further exhibitions, talks and interactive workshops, while across the city a programme of events vividly bring the history of Hyde to life again today.