Yorkshire celebrates 'Martyr of the Moors'

A 50-yard queue formed after an open-air Mass for people to be blessed with a relic of Blessed Nicholas Postgate, 'martyr of the moors' at Egton Bridge on the North Yorkshire Moors on Sunday July 2.

Monks from Ampleforth Abbey, near Helmsley, held the relic, a hand bone, of Father Postgate, who was hanged at York in 1679 after being caught baptising a child, a treasonable offence.

The Mass was celebrated by Bishop Terry Drainey, Bishop of Middlesbrough, with Bishop John Wilson, of Westminster, who is titular bishop of Lindisfarne, Northumberland, and a dozen priests.

More than 200 people from all over the North-east attended the annual event. Next year it will be held at Ugthorpe, a village five miles from Egton Bridge.

The Postgate Society, which is based at Egton Bridge, is promoting the canonisation of Blessed Nicholas. He is regarded in the staunchly Catholic area round the River Esk as a saint.

A striking image of the martyr was unveiled at St Hedda's Church, Egton Bridge, a few years ago. The window shows him striding over the moors with the help of a long stick and hair billowing behind him.

A leaflet 'The Postgate Trail' has been published for walkers and motorists showing 14 places which featured during the martyr's life.