A SITE is being sought in North East Lincolnshire for construction of a monastery to accommodate up to 40 monks.
Locations in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham are being scouted, but Stallingborough is the front-runner, partly because of its saintly origins.
The leafy village was originally known as St Allingborough after a much-loved saint who lived to 107 - an extraordinary age, especially in pre-medieval times.
He famously led the resistance to a Viking invasion, and was unusual among monks in his readiness to bear arms to fight off the Nordic pillagers.
The monastic order has asked for its identity to be kept under wraps until it has identified a potential site and submitted a formal planning application to North East Lincolnshire.
Subject to approval from the parish council and villagers - who will be polled on the matter - the monks also want Stallingborough to revert its original name, St Allingborough.
A spokesperson for the order told the Grimsby News: "This would be be entirely seemly appropriate.
"St Albans in Hertfordshire is not known as Stalbans, so why should St Allingborough have been contracted to Stallingborough?
"It doesn't make sense - we should honour and revere our great English saints."
The monastic order has several other monasteries in England - the largest being in Streatham, South London, with 78 monks, aged 18 to 94, all of whom have taken a vow of silence.
Here, they sought a name-change of the suburb to St Reatham, after another forgotten saint, but the initiative was ruled out by Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London.
The year is not known, but the date was definitely April 1.
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