St Botolph's Church is the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

Bossall Bossall is a hamlet in North Yorkshire, England with fewer than 100 residents. The village was part of the Ryedale district between 1974 and 2023. It is now administered by North Yorkshire Council. The Church of St Botolph was built in the 12t ...

, a village in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, in England. The current church, dedicated to

St Botolph Botolph of Thorney (; also called Botolph, Botulph or Botulf; later known as Saint Botolph; died ) was an English abbot and saint. He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel, as well as various aspec ...

, dates from around 1180, though as many as three earlier churches may have occupied the site. One of these is thought to have been built by the

Bosa of York Bosa (died 705) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of York during the 7th and early 8th centuries. He was educated at Whitby Abbey, where he became a monk. Following Wilfrid's removal from York in 678 the diocese was divided into three, leaving a gre ...

. The church is

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

and approximately in length. The

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

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 part of the tower are original, but the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was rebuilt in the 13th century and alterations were later made to the upper part of the tower. The Borthwick Institute holds copies of the parish records which date to the early 17th century. The Church of England records include this background information about the parish:

A vicarage was ordained at Bossall in 1229. The rectory and advowson of the church initially descended with the manor of Bossall but by 1378 it had passed to the Nevill family. At some point between 1378 and 1386 it was alienated to
Durham Priory Durham Priory was a Benedictine priory associated with Durham Cathedral, in Durham in the north-east of England. Its head was the Prior of Durham. It was founded in 1083 as a Roman Catholic monastery, but after Dissolution of the Monasteries ...
by John Nevill for the maintenance of
Durham College, Oxford Durham College, also known as Durham Hall until 1381, was a college of the University of Oxford, founded by the monks of Durham Priory in the late 13th century and endowed by Bishop Thomas Hatfield in 1381. The college was closed in 1545 fo ...
. The advowson was fully appropriated to the college c.1404, and the college retained it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when it was granted by the King to the Dean and Chapter of Durham.

A report published in 1839 states that the church was suffering from neglect at that time, although the interior walls had been recently cleaned. The vicarage, a white Elizabethan house built in 1838 and the home of Rev. Bolton Simpson at that time, was located nearby. It was restored in 1859, during which process the west gable was rebuilt, and a south porch was added. The church was

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1953. The church is built of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and has a Welsh

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. It has a

plan, consisting of a

with a south porch, north and south

s, a

, and a tower at the crossing. The tower, nave and transepts have a

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

and a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

table. The south porch has a moulded round-headed arch with four orders of shafts with dogtooth and stylised flower decoration, and waterleaf

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. The doorway in the north porch is similar, but with only one order. Many of the windows are lancets, while others are

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

, and there are a couple of round-headed windows. Inside the church is a 14th-century

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

with a 17th-century cover, and a painting of the Royal Arms from 1710. Monuments include a brass figure commemorating Robert Constable, a former chancellor of Dunelm, who died in the 1540s, and several memorials to members of the Belt family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bossall, St Botolph 13th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in North Yorkshire Grade I listed churches in North Yorkshire

See also

References