St Helen, Escrick

Come and visit us

St Helen’s Church is open daily from 8am to 5pm. On the second Monday of every month from 1pm – 4pm volunteers offer guided tours and refreshments. Guided tours are available at other times by request, and audio tours can be downloaded at www.escrickheritage.org

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

St Helen’s Church, Escrick, suffered a devastating fire in 1923. While work was being carried out on the roof strong winds caused the flame from a blowlamp to ignite the woodwork. The splendid memorial to Caroline Neville, the 1st Lady Wenlock (1792-1868), was seriously damaged.

The memorial was commissioned by the 2nd Lord Wenlock to his mother and was erected on an ornate marble tomb chest. Carved from Carrera marble in 1876 the memorial is the work of Count Gleichen, accomplished sculptor and cousin to Queen Victoria. As a result of the fire, the effigy split in four places, the plinth was ruined, and Lady Caroline’s nose destroyed by falling masonry. A new plinth was created to commemorate the fire.

As part of our current conservation project this fine sculpture has undergone cleaning and restoration work and now rests on a new plinth. It depicts Lady Caroline in old age and the intricate lacework on her gown and the delicate work on her hands can be fully appreciated. After the fire minor repairs were carried out to the effigy and it was given a new nose, larger and more masculine than the original.

This nose is currently the subject of an interesting debate and we ask visitors:

• Should it be left as it is?
• Should the effigy be given a new nose matching the original (we have a pre-fire photo)? Should the ‘new’ nose be removed allowing for the damage caused by the fire to be seen?

Our summer events

Stonemasonry Workshop
Saturday 8 June 10am-4:30pm

Stonemasonry Workshop given by master mason Matthias Garn, you will have an opportunity to create your own carving to take home and is suitable for beginners.  Booking is essential: for further information please contact Caroline on 07774 461026 or email escrickchurch@gmail.com

Hands-On Heritage Day
Saturday 10 August 1pm-4pm

Join us for an afternoon of activities for all the family including guided tours, children’s crafts and heritage trails.

St John of Beverley, Salton

Main Street, Salton, York, YO62 6RN

Come and visit us

St John’s Church is open for visitors all day, every day.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

The stonework of the nave and part of the archway between nave and chancel is pink up to a height of 8 feet. It is believed that the calcined stone was caused by the fire created by the invading Scots during the reign of King David of Scotland at the end of the 12th century. Realising the invaders were on their way the people of Salton took refuge in the church. The invaders ravaged and set fire to the church. The dry thatched roof was soon burnt to ashes, but the stone walls survived with some damage which shows in the pink calcined stones.

Our summer events

Explore St John of Beverley Church
Saturday 22^nd & Sunday 23^rd June, 10am-4pm

Enjoy the peace and calm of a Yorkshire Medieval gem at St John of Beverley Church, Salton.

Before you open the door of the nave, look up to the typically Norman archway with its carved double row of beakheads. Close your eyes and take in the atmosphere, casting your mind back to the 12th Century. Imagine the sounds and smells; the roar of invaders, cries of terrified villagers, the crackle of fire and smell of smoke.

Opening your eyes back in the 21st century all is now beautiful and calm; stop and look down the nave, how strange! Why is the stonework pink to a height of eight feet?

To find out more of this dramatic story come and explore the church on June 22nd and 23rd when between 10am and 4pm someone will be there to greet you and tell you more about this dramatic moment in our church’s history.

Selby Abbey

The Crescent, Selby, YO8 4PU

Come and visit us

Selby Abbey is open every day of the year, 9am – 4pm.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

Selby Abbey is celebrating the 950th anniversary of its founding this year. In 1069, a monk named Benedict from Auxerre, France, saw a vision of St Germain, who told him to go and build a monastery. He would know the place when he saw three swans swimming on the bend of a river. In 1069, Benedict set sail and founded a monastery in Selby. The wooden church he built was replaced by the stone abbey you can see today.

The church itself has suffered severe loss and damage over the centuries – from the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII, damage suffered from fighting in the Civil War, from its Tower falling in 1609 and from a massive fire which gutted the building in 1906 amongst many others.

Although severely damaged, the Abbey has survived time after time and is now the only remaining abbey in the north of England which still has a roof and is a working church today. Not only that, it was given 5* in Simon Jenkins’ book, England’s Thousand Best Churches. Come and help us celebrate our 950th year!

St James, Norton

Norton Lane, Sheffield, S8 8JQ

Come and visit us

St James’ Church opens for heritage weekends and Saturday coffee mornings, as well as for services and community use.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

Two interesting stones were dug up at the base of the church tower in 2017. One of the stones, now in the churchyard, appears to be the base of a pre-conquest standing cross, and there may be other pieces waiting to be excavated. Behind this stone is a sarcophagus lid of unknown date.

The church’s chantry chapel and various 16th- century monuments, as well as an exquisite Elizabethan altar table and chalice and paten of the same period, show loss and continuity in a turbulent age.

Priory Church of St Mary, Bridlington

Church Green, Bridlington, YO16 7JX

Come and visit us

Bridlington Priory is open for visitors Monday-Friday 10am – 4pm, Saturday 10am – 12noon, and Sunday 12noon – 2pm

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

A number of pieces of masonry from the cloister arcading of Bridlington Priory before the Dissolution have been found over the years in the churchyard and are now in the church. In the 1960s stone from the cloister arcading was reassembled to build an example of what part of the cloister may have looked like.

There are also inscribed grave stones which may show the names of former priors. Under the present altar is the ancient altar stone set into the floor. This obviously has been broken in two. A display cabinet in the church shows a maquette of Bridlington Priory pre-1537 which gives an idea of the position of the cloister and other buildings.

Leeds Minster

2-6 Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ

Come and visit us

Leeds Minster is open Monday – Friday, 11.00am – 2.00pm and Saturday, 10.00am – 12.30pm

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

The famous Leeds Cross is one of the earliest objects from the city’s past. Parts of it, some of them damaged, were found in the walls of the medieval tower when the former building was demolished in 1838. Although not recognised for what it was, these fragments, together with others from at least another six crosses, were fortunately rescued by the architect, Robert Chantrell.  He had new stones carved where pieces were missing, some more accurately than others, and rebuilt the cross in his garden in Headingley. When he retired and left Leeds, the cross went with him, and only returned to the church some years later after a delegation of Parish Wardens demanded their return to the church.

The Leeds crosses, all dating from the 8^th to 10^th centuries, would have marked the graves of prominent people living and worshipping in the area. Carved crosses were a new fashion introduced by the Saxons and continued by the descendants of the Vikings; the style of decoration changed over time. The Leeds Cross dates from the 10^th century and is of a style known as Anglo-Scandinavian. The wheel-head at the top belongs to another cross. The carving includes vine scroll and interlace, as well as figures. One of the bottom panels tells the then well-known story of the pagan hero, Weland the Smith, who having offended his king, escaped in a flying machine, possibly used here as a parallel for Christian stories and beliefs.

Our Summer Events

Lost and Found : The Leeds Cross In Its Historical Context
26^th June, 6pm

Professor Joyce Hill, an international authority on the transmission of Christian culture in early medieval Europe, will give an illustrated talk on one of the city’s greatest treasures, the 10th-century Leeds Cross which stands proudly in Leeds Minster. Professor Hill describes how, ‘It captures a moment in our history when Leeds lay at the heart of that part of England where the Vikings had by then settled and become an accepted part of local society.’

This illustrated lecture shows how the Cross reflects this Anglo-Scandinavian world and sets its production in the larger historical landscape. It also tells the remarkable story of how knowledge of it was lost for 500 years, and how it was then reassembled from the surviving fragments to become the monument that we know today.

For more information and to pre-book your ticket, visit the Leeds Civic Trust website.

St Mary, Beverley

North Bar Within, Beverley, HU17 8DL

Come and visit us

St Mary’s Church is open Monday – Saturday 11am – 3pm.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

St Mary’s is home to over 600 medieval and Tudor roof bosses, one of the finest collections of any parish church in England. They show biblical images and symbols of the saints, mythical creatures such as the unicorn, along with scenes of domestic life. These carvings present a vibrant visual record of the life and times, hopes and fears of the medieval and Tudor world. They represent a form of storytelling without words.

A notable feature of the St Mary’s bosses is the large number of images of medieval musical instruments. Beverley was home to the Northern Guild of Minstrels, and this is reflected in the extensive carvings of instruments, both here and in Beverley Minster. The church has an outstanding collection of bosses in the roof of the nave, dating from the rebuilding of the church in the 1520s. However, by their very nature, many of the bosses are high up in the ceiling and their detail cannot easily be seen with the naked eye. As part of a wider restoration programme, St Mary’s is undertaking to open up this overlooked heritage for visitors to the church.

These are not the only roof decorations of national importance in the church. The ‘Ceiling of Kings’ in the choir is a unique piece of Lancastrian propaganda from the Wars of the Roses, with forty panels depicting the kings of England to confirm the legitimacy of Henry VI.

St Helen, Bilton-in-Ainsty

Church Street, Bilton-in-Ainsty, York, YO26 7NN

Come and visit us

St Helen’s Church is open for Sunday services, and on every fourth Saturday 10:30am – 12noon.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

This year we will be promoting our ‘Saxon Cross’ found in the west wall of the church in 1870.  Conservation work is planned to commence in autumn 2019 if sufficient funds can be raised. Conservators will clean and repair all four sections and mount them along the south wall in the south chancel aisle

The wheel head of the cross is a rare survivor of the 11th century, with carvings of the crucified Christ on each of its four arms. There is one section currently in the south chancel aisle which is believed to be from the 9^thcentury, beautifully carved with biblical scenes

Our summer events

Military Wives Choir
Friday 5^th July, 7:30pm

The church will be open with entertainment from the Military Wives Choir.

Tickets £10, available by email from biltoninainsty18@gmail.com

St Helen’s Church Open Day

Saturday 6^th  July 11am – 4pm

Visitors will be able to see our cross fragments in this open day, along with their conservation report.

Holy Redeemer, York

Boroughbridge Road, York, YO26 5SD

Come and visit us

 Holy Redeemer will be open every Wednesday afternoon in June and September and every Sunday between June and September. Visits at other times by prior appointment.

Our “Lost & Found” Feature

Holy Redeemer houses 10th-century stones taken from St Mary Bishophill Senior when it was demolished. The stones were used in the construction of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in 1964. Fragments of this church that was lost forever were reused in the creation of a new church, connecting Holy Redeemer to the history of the Church in York.

The collection of carvings on these stones forms one of the best collections of 10th-century art in the City of York.

Our summer events

Open Week at Holy Redeemer
21^st – 26^th July, 10am – 8pm

Holy Redeemer was designed by architect George Pace and built in 1964 using a combination of new building materials and stone from the ‘lost’ church of St Mary Bishophill Senior. Guided tours of the 10th century stonework which has been refound in the fabric of the modern church will be available, as well as the chance to see archive images telling the story of this wonderful church.

The community of Holy Redeemer would also like to invite visitors who have memories of the lost church of St Mary Bishophill prior to its demolition or of Holy Redeemer from its original development in the brick building that is now the church hall, to the present.  We are particularly interested in those early memories which are at risk of being lost forever if we don’t gather them now.

Light refreshments will be available throughout the event.

For further information please contact helen@holyredeemeryork.com or 07805 612995

Barley Hall, York

Come and Visit Us

Barley Hall is a reconstructed medieval townhouse in the city of York, England. It was built around 1360 for the regular canons of Nostell Priory near Wakefield, later becoming the home of William Snawsell, a 15th-century Lord Mayor of York. Barley Hall is open 10am – 5pm every day. For more information visit barleyhall.co.uk

Our Summer Event

Canon Rufus joins us from Nostell Priory to spend a day in its York townhouse, where he will share with visitors some insights into his life, and help young and old alike to have a go at being medieval scribes.

Come and Visit Us

DIG is a hands on archaeological adventure housed in the former church of St Saviour in York. DIG is open 10am – 5pm every day (last admission 4pm). For more information visit digyork.com

Our Summer Event

Join historian and researcher Crystal Hollis to find out more about graffiti in medieval churches, and what they can tell us about the past. Crystal will introduce some examples recorded in the course of her research, and will describe some of the latest advances in this developing field. You’ll also have the chance to learn some of the tools and techniques available to anyone interested in recording church graffiti.

Tickets are £6. Pre-booking is essential, online or by phone (01904 615505). The event will last approx. 1 hour.