St Mary the Virgin's Church is in the village of

Great Ouseburn Great Ouseburn is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated south-east of Boroughbridge. The village of Aldwark, Hambleton, Aldwark is to the north-east. It had a population of 598 according to the 20 ...

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 ...

, England. It is an active

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in 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 ...

in the deanery of Ripon, the archdeaconry of Richmond, and the Diocese of Leeds. Its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

has been united with those of four local parishes. The church 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, ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building 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 ...

History

The lower part of the tower dates from the Norman era, the upper part was added in the 13th century, the arcades date from the 14th century, and 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 ...

from the following century. The

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

and

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

s were rebuilt in 1820. In 1883 the Lancaster partnership of Paley and Austin added the south chapel. In 1994 a porch was built. Since then a toilet and kitchenette have been added, and the organ has been moved; moving the organ allowed the chapel to be restored.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone, with the vestry in

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 brick, and the roofs in stone slate. Its plan consists of a three- 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 ...

, north and south aisles, a chancel with a north vestry and a south chapel, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages, standing on a chamfered

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

. On the west side of the bottom stage is a

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

. There are slit windows on south side in the bottom and middle stages, and a clock face on the west side in the middle stage. The top stage contains round-headed two-light bell openings. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

is embattled with crocketed pinnacles. On top of the tower is a pyramidal roof. At the west end of the south aisle is a doorway with a pointed head. Along the walls of the aisles are three two-light windows containing Y-

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. On the south side of the chapel are a priest's door and a square-headed window containing three lancets. Its east window contains 19th-century

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'', � ...

-style tracery. In the north and south sides of the chancel are square-headed two-light windows, and the east window is in Perpendicular style.

Interior

The tower arch is round-headed. The arcades consist of tall, pointed arches carried on slender round columns. On the north wall of the chancel are two monuments by Fisher of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

dated 1779 and 1780. The

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 ...

dates from the 17th century, and its lid from the 19th century. The two- manual organ was installed in the church by Peter Wood and Son. It had originally been built in 1962 by J. W. Walker and Sons for the First Church of Christ, Scientist,

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath ( ) is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, ...

, and was moved to St Mary's in 2000. This replaced a much smaller, single-manual organ, which was built in 1888 by Forster and Andrews, and moved to Japan following the installation of the present organ.

References

External links