The exhibition is of selected historic stones which form the large collection of Anglo-Scandinavian grave monuments – mostly 9th and 10th Century – and the equally large collection of Post Conquest medieval stones, mostly 12th Century.

During the restoration of the church 49 Anglo-Scandinavian carved stones were discovered.

These Viking stones, mostly funeral monuments from a Christian graveyard, form one of the largest and most important collections in the country.

It is thought the graveyard at Lythe may have contained distinctive hogback gravemarkers, so called because the curved ridge resembled the back of a large pig.

When one of the hogbacks was cleaned the conservators were amazed to see a carving of a figure with his arms in the mouths of beasts which may be a representation of Ragnarok, the end of the world in Viking mythology.

Lythe was an important Viking-age burial ground and features of its monuments are peculiar to Lythe that stone carvers formed a workshop group.

Viking traders may have established a beach market at Sandsend and the market probably developed into a permanent settlement where the traders, who had now adopted Christianity, would have built a church and burial ground close by.

(Whitby Gazette)