There is no mention of Hedon in the Domesday Survey. The name Hedon was used in 1115 when Stephen of Aumale gave a hospice beside ‘the stream of Hedon’ and free passage across the Humber to Aumale Abbey. About 1140, William le Gros, count of Aumale, gave a toft at Hedon to St Leonard’s hospital at York. The town was founded by the earls of Albemarle as a port for their extensive honour of Holderness. A mint is mentioned at Hedon in the 1150s (VCH V, 168-9). There were numerous hospitals in and around the town (VCH III, 308-10). By the time the town received its first royal charter as a borough, c. 1170, at least two of its three medieval churches existed as well as two hospitals (Pevsner and Neave 1995, 452).
The port and town prospered in the beginning, but the rise of other ports along the Humber and the silting up of the inlets (some artificial) at Hedon steadily reduced it. Morris 1919, 178-9, quotes Leland on the sight of the decaying port, and Camden, who says ‘when Hulle began to flourish, Heddon decaied’. Ravenser Odd, the port on a predecessor of Spurn Point, was supported by Isabella countess of Aumale in the late 13th century.
For history of Hedon, see English 1979, 214-222.