Old St Stephen's Church is a redundant Anglican church standing on a hillside in

Fylingdales Fylingdales is a civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England situated south of Whitby, within the North York Moors National Park. It contains the villages of Robin Hood's Bay and Fylingthorpe and Fyling Hall School. ...

, overlooking

Robin Hood's Bay Robin Hood's Bay is a small fishing village and a bay located in the North York Moors National Park, south of Whitby and north of Scarborough on the coast of North Yorkshire, England. Bay Town, its local name, is in the ancient chapelry of ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated 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 ...

, and is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

History

The church was built in 1822 replacing an older church; a church has been present on the site since the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

era. This church closed in 1870 when it was superseded by a new church, also dedicated to Saint Stephen, on a new site near the railway station. The old church was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Trust on 1 December 1986. The church has been semi-converted inside to make it habitable for campers (or what travel-writers and the Church of England are calling Champing).

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

with a purple slate roof. It is a simple building comprising a single-cell "preaching box", with a six- bay

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 ...

, a small

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

, a south porch and a north

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. At the west end of the church is a bell-

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

. The architectural style of the church is Neoclassical. Above the porch is a sundial bearing the dates 1736, 1864 and 1919. Inside the porch are wooden benches. In the walls of the nave are windows with pointed arches. There is a square-headed door in the south wall of the sanctuary. The east window is similar to those in the nave, and it is flanked by diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. In the wall of the vestry is a 15-pane window.

Interior

The interior of the church contains its original

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

fittings. These include a panelled gallery on the north and west sides that is carried by Doric columns, a triple decker pulpit on the south wall with a sounding board, and

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s. One of these pews carries the name and the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of the Farsyde family. There are also memorial tablets to members of the Farsyde family. The font dates from the early 18th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fylingdales, Old Saint Stephens Church Grade I listed churches in North Yorkshire Churches completed in 1822 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in North Yorkshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Former Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in North Yorkshire 1822 establishments in England

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior

See also

References