St Mary's Church is an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
in
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...
in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, England. It is designated a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
[
]
History
St Mary's was established in the first half of the 12th century as a daughter church of Beverley Minster
Beverley Minster, otherwise known as the Parish Church of Saint John and Saint Martin, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, is a parish church in the Church of England. It is one of the largest parish churches in the UK, larger than one-third ...
, to serve Beverley's trading community. It is a cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly described ...
church, 197 feet in length, with aisled nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
, south transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
with east aisle, north transept with east chapel and crypt
A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.
Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...
below, northeast chapel with adjoining sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is usually located ...
and priests’ rooms above, and a crossing tower.
A few 12th and early 13th century fragments remain scattered throughout the church. These are numerous enough to determine that by the mid-13th century, the church consisted of an aisle-less chancel and transepts, an aisled nave, and probably a crossing tower.
Systematic rebuilding began in the late 13th century, during the Decorated period, when a large chapel was added on to the east side of the north transept. This was followed by the addition of a south aisle to the previously aisle-less chancel, in conjunction with a widening of east aisle of the south transept. The nave aisles were completely rebuilt in the early 14th century. In the 1330s or 1340s the chancel was given a north aisle, the three easternmost bays of which were made into a superb chapel with Flowing tracery and a tierceron-star vault
Vault may refer to:
* Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards
Architecture
* Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space
* Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored
* Burial vault (enclosure ...
. The mouldings of the tracery, windows, vault, and piers all merge fluidly with each other, unifying the space. The mouldings of the vault ribs on the north wall spring from the floor and form fluted columns without capitals, and on the south wall spring from the column capitals, intersecting and running through the arcade mouldings.
Building work at St Mary's ceased in the mid-14th century, as in so many cases throughout England, because of the Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
. It did not resume until , when the west front was rebuilt in the Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
style and a Perpendicular clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
was added to the nave. The south porch and a clerestory for the chancel followed in the early 15th century. The transepts were rebuilt with clerestories in the mid-15th century; the Early Gothic
Early Gothic is the style of architecture that appeared in northern France, Normandy and then England between about 1130 and the mid-13th century. It combined and developed several key elements from earlier styles, particularly from Romanesque ar ...
arches were reused, but set on new piers. Bequests for this work were made in 1451–3, and further bequests in 1498–1500 funded the rebuilding of the west end of the nave aisles. Also installed throughout the 15th and into the 16th centuries were the series of fine wooden ceilings for which the building is known. The most recognized is the chancel ceiling, originally of the mid-15th century but entirely repainted in 1863, with depictions of forty English kings from the mythical Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...
through Henry VI, and a portrait of George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...
from 1939.
During Evensong
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...
on 29 April 1520, the central tower collapsed, ‘and overwhelmed some that then were in he church
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' i ...
. Much of the work on the eastern end of the nave was undone, though the aisle walls were little damaged. The central tower and the nave arcades and clerestory were entirely rebuilt, though the clerestory windows appear to be of : Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dan ...
suggests that " ssibly they were reused in spite of the radical damage done by the falling tower". This rebuilding work began immediately after the collapse, the south arcade bearing an inscribed date of 1524 at both east and west ends.
William Rokeby
William Rokeby (died 29 November 1521) was a leading statesman and cleric in early sixteenth-century Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Meath, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He is commemorated in the Rokeby Chapels ...
, Archbishop of Dublin
The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...
, a Yorkshire man, at his death the following year left £200 in his will for the rebuilding works. Those who gave money for the piers of the north arcade are commemorated in inscriptions on the hoodmould stops: merchant John Crossley and his wife; the good wives of Beverley; and the minstrels, five of whom are depicted as statues on corbels against their pier.
The present font dates from 1530, the gift of a Beverley draper, William Leryffax. Made of Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
marble, it is richly ornamented with a defaced inscription.
The 19th century saw significant restoration undertaken at St. Mary's, in 1829–30 under William Comins, then under A. W. N. Pugin
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...
in 1844–52. E. W. Pugin
Edward Welby Pugin (11 March 1834 – 5 June 1875) was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was ...
took over the work, and was followed by Cuthbert Brodrick
Cuthbert Brodrick FRIBA (1 December 1821 – 2 March 1905) was a British architect, whose most famous building is Leeds Town Hall.
Early life
Brodrick was born in the Yorkshire port of Hull where his father was a well-to-do merchant and shi ...
, George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
(who refitted the nave and chancel), and numerous other architects.
In 2020, the restoration of the stonework started with the replacement of some weathered stone carvings with newly commissioned figures based on characters from ''The Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...
'' books by C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
.
In 2021, as part of a programme of celebrating women in the restoration of the stonework of the church, it was announced that stone figures of nine women will include Hull born pilot and engineer Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.
Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records duri ...
, and Hilda Lyon
Hilda Margaret Lyon, MA, MSc, AFRAeS (31 May 1896 – 2 December 1946) was a British engineer who invented the "Lyon Shape", a streamlined design used for airships and submarines.
Early life and education
Lyon was born in 1896 in Market We ...
the aeronautical engineer educated at Beverley High School will feature alongside Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
, Mary Seacole
Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu E.N. (2012) Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands. ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up t ...
, Marie Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
, Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, co ...
, Helen Sharman
Helen Patricia Sharman, CMG, OBE, HonFRSC (born 30 May 1963) is a British chemist and cosmonaut who became the first British person, first Western European woman and first privately funded woman in space, as well as the first woman to visit ...
and Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the A ...
and Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
.
Organ
According to George Oliver (writing 1829), an organ built by Donaldson of York was placed in the rood loft at the east end of the nave in 1792, at a cost raised by voluntary subscription of £311, the subscribers appointing a Mr Lambert as organist. In 1869, Messrs Forster and Andrews built a new organ, said to 'boast a richly carved oak screen with handsomely decorated front pipes'. In 1889 the same latter firm installed a detached console besides the choir stalls and pneumatic action was added throughout. In 1908 it was completely rebuilt by Messrs Lewis & Co of London, when the oak case of the previous organ was discarded. In 1954 a major overhaul was carried out by local firm Messrs Hall & Broadfield who replaced the pneumatic action with an electro-magnetic mechanism and transformed the three-manual organ into a four-manual instrument. The completed rebuild was dedicated in 1957.[''St Mary's Church, Beverley'' (1979), pp.6-7.]
See also
*Grade I listed churches in the East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire is a local government district with the status of a unitary authority. For ceremonial purposes it includes the neighbouring city and unitary authority of Kingston upon Hull.
Buildings in England are given listed bu ...
References
External links
St Mary's Church, Beverley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Beverley
Beverley
Church of England church buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire
1120 establishments in England
Grade I listed churches in the East Riding of Yorkshire