St Mary's Church, Lastingham

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Church of St Mary, Lastingham

Lastingham, Yorkshire


Church of St Mary, Lastingham
Church of England
Diocese of York
Parish: SE727904
Location
Grid reference: SE727904
Location: 54°18’16"N, -0°52’57"W
History
Built 1078-1086
Norman / Perpendicular Gothic
Information

The Church of St Mary, Lastingham, is the Church of England's parish church for the village of Lastingham in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The parish lies within Ryedale, four miles north of Kirkbymoorside, six miles west of Pickering and thirty miles north east of York.[1]

The church is a Grade I listed building.[2]

The first church on the site was a monastery founded in 654. The present church dates from the latter part of the 11th century. Lastingham has been an important part of Christian heritage and culture in northern England and as such, has been a place of pilgrimage, especially for its rare crypt, which is said to be unique architecturally for Britain, and possibly, the world.

History

The Venerable Bede, writing around 730, described how in 654, monks established a wooden monastery[3] at Lastingeau: this is the earliest appearance of the village's name, from the Old English usually rendered Læstingaham, meaning . 'abode of Læsta's people'.[4][5] The land for the monastery was procured from the King of the Deirans and the monks established their house in "a fold of the Yorkshire Moors".[6] St Cedd was the first abbot and he died of the plague at Lastingham in 664.[7] At first Cedd was buried in the open air, but the monks eventually built a church around him.[8]

No substantial structures survive from the Anglo-Saxon church; it is thought that the church was destroyed during the various raids in the area over the next 400 years, particularly by Danish invaders.[9]

When Cedd died, his brother St Chad, took over as abbot and running of the monastery, but not long afterwards, he moved to Lichfield.[10] Eventually, the relics and remnants of St Cedd's presence at Lastingham were removed and kept with those of his brother in Lichfield. Some of their bones are now entombed in Birmingham's Roman Catholic Cathedral[11] though St Cedd is believed to be mostly buried at Lastingham.[12]

The monastery is believed to have been destroyed in 870, but William the Conqueror gave permission for a new church to be built on the site in 1078,[13] when a cohort of Benedictine monks from Whitby established the new church under Abbot Stephen.[14] They stayed for only ten years before moving on to York, finding the abbey remote and in a lawless area. The revival of the church has therefore been confined to a clear decade and the Romanesque architecture is prominent in the reconstructed church. Some have pointed out the rarity in being able to see a start and end date in the building of the church.[15]

Following the dissolution of the monasteries during the Reformation, the abbey church became a parish church.

Architectural development

During the 13th century, arcades, bays and aisle in the north and south parts of the church were added. In the following century, the tower was erected and it was left for five centuries with little further work until 1879, when it was renovated by John Loughborough Pearson with the porch being rebuilt and the whole church being re-roofed.[16] This has led to a mix of architectural styles; the walls of the aisles are Perpendicular, but the nave (and indeed, most of the foundations and crypt) are Norman.[17] Glynne was quite critical of the restoration,[18] but Pevsner wrote favourably about it describing Pearson's efforts as "remarkably sympathetic".[19] Stone altars in the church have been dated back to Roman times with current thinking being that they were re-worked during the Anglo-Saxon period.[20]

Lastingham church crypt

The crypt underneath St Mary's, has walls that are three feet thick.[21] It is reputed to be the only crypt in Britain that has a nave, apse and side aisles.[22] The crypt also lays claim to be the oldest Norman crypt in the world and additionally the only one with a nave, aisles and an apsidal chancel.[23] The crypt runs underneath the whole footprint of the church above and is furnished with one square shaft which is indented with a piscina. The crypt is supported by four pillars believed to be of pre-conquest in origin and historians estimate that the crypt has not been altered since the time of William the Conqueror.[24] The crypt is accessed by a staircase descending from nave.[17] During the 18th century, cock-fighting was said to have taken place in the crypt, with or without the knowledge of the clergy and churchwarden.[25]

The architecture of the church in conjunction with its history, means that it regularly features on the best of lists for churches of the Church of England. Pevsner described the crypt as "unforgettable";[26] John Betjeman concurred describing St Mary's as "one of the most moving places in England".[27] Simon Jenkins is equally effusive in his book, England's Thousand Best Churches, awarding the church four stars out of a possible five and stating that while "most churches are a challenge to the faithful, Lastingham is a challenge to the faithless." Jenkins notes the rarity of the crypt but also points out that the church lacks monuments and historical artefacts:

“ Lastingham has few furnishings of interest. It does not need them.[28] ”
  • Church of Saint Mary
  • from the south
    from the south
  • nave
    nave
  • font
    font
  • capitals in the crypt
    capitals in the crypt
 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about St Mary's Church, Lastingham)

References

  1. ↑ Information on St Mary's Church, Lastingham  from GENUKI
  2. ↑ National Heritage List 1316041: Church of St Mary, Lastingham (Grade I listing)
  3. ↑ George 1888, p. 161.
  4. ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 289 ISBN 0198691033
  5. ↑ George 1888, p. 158.
  6. ↑ Stenton, Frank Merry (1943). Anglo-Saxon England (4 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 121. OCLC 611540945. 
  7. ↑ Template:Cite odnb
  8. ↑ "St Marys Church Lastingham - History". http://lastinghamparishchurch.org.uk/about-us/history/history.php. Retrieved 16 October 2018. 
  9. ↑ Simon, Jos (2015). The rough guide to Yorkshire (2 ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 243. ISBN 978-1409371045. 
  10. ↑ {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=encyclopaedia }} (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  11. ↑ Mayhew-Smith, Nick (2011). Britain's holiest places.. Lifestyle Press Ltd. p. 130. ISBN 9780954476748. 
  12. ↑ "Bradwell: Hundreds of worshippers enjoy annual pilgrimage" (in en). Daily Gazette. 6 July 1999. https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/5527425.Bradwell__Hundreds_of_worshippers_enjoy_annual_pilgrimage/. Retrieved 14 November 2018. 
  13. ↑ "Genuki: Ecclesiastical History., Yorkshire (North Riding)". https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Lastingham/ChurchCol_Lastingham. Retrieved 16 October 2018. 
  14. ↑ @Historic England. "Church of St Mary (60718)". PastScape. http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=60718. Retrieved 24 October 2018 
  15. ↑ Harrison, Stuart; Christopher, Norton (2012). "Lastingham and the Architecture of the Benedictine Revival in Northumbria". in Bates, David. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2011. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-84383-735-0. 
  16. ↑ A History of the County of York - Volume 1 pp 524-529: Parishes: Lastingham (Victoria County History)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Glynne 2007, p. 267.
  18. ↑ Glynne 2007, p. 268.
  19. ↑ Pevsner 1973, p. 225.
  20. ↑ "The king of the stones". Gazette & Herald. 18 May 2006. https://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/farmingnews/764000.the-king-of-the-stones/. Retrieved 14 November 2018. 
  21. ↑ Williams, Christopher (24 October 2015). "Yorkshire village with a mobile 'not-spot' battles 80ft mast". The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11952888/Yorkshire-village-with-a-mobile-not-spot-battles-80ft-mast.html. Retrieved 16 October 2018. 
  22. ↑ Bagshaw, Mike (2014). Slow Yorkshire Moors & Wolds : including York & the coast. Chalfont St Peter: Bradt. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-84162-548-5. 
  23. ↑ Winn, Christopher (2014). I Never Knew That About England's Country Churches. London: Ebury Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-1-78503-657-6. 
  24. ↑ Williams, Jo, ed (2013). Yorkshire Footprint Focus Guide. Bath: Footprint. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-909268-16-6. 
  25. ↑ Peach, Howard (2004). Curious tales of old North Yorkshire. Wilmslow: Sigma Leisure. p. 49. ISBN 1-85058-793-0. 
  26. ↑ Pevsner 1973, p. 224.
  27. ↑ Lewis, Stephen (16 July 2011). "Betjeman’s Best British Churches, updated by Richard Surman (Collins, £35)". York Press. https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9143934.betjemans-best-british-churches-updated-by-richard-surman-collins-35/. Retrieved 24 October 2018. 
  28. ↑ Jenkins, Simon (2000). England's thousand best churches. London: Penguin Books. p. 778. ISBN 0-14-029795-2. 
  • George, Frank (1888). Ryedale and North Yorkshire antiquities. York: Sampson Bros. OCLC 4986493. 
  • Glynne, Stephen (2007). Butler, Laurence. ed. The Yorkshire Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne 1825–1874. Yorkshire/Suffolk: Yorkshire Archaeological Society/Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-903564-80-6. 
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus (1973). Yorkshire; the North Riding. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071029-9. 
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