Caedmon

In 1966 a memorial to the early Christian poet Caedmon was unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. This famous Northumbrian poet died around the year A.D. 680 and is buried in St Mary's, Whitby in Yorkshire. The inscription reads: 

In the 900th year of the royal foundation of the monastery the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster placed this memorial to Caedmon who first among the English made verses

The Venerable Bede wrote about the poet and tells us that Caedmon was a cow herd and lay brother at Whitby Abbey who, after having a dream, began to sing a song which was then written down as poetry.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004