Oswiu of Northumbria
In 655, King Oswiu of Northumbria sent his one-year-old daughter Ælfflæd to stay with Hilda, "to be consecrated to God in perpetual virginity", an important gesture. Hilda stayed at Hartlepool Abbey until 657 or 658 when at Aidans behest she became founding abbess of Whitby Abbey, then called Streoneshalh, taking with her Ælfflæd and ten nuns. Hilda was now technically abbess of both monasteries, but she lived at Streaneshalch.