North-east of Skipton in the small village of Thorlby stands a unique Wesleyan Methodist chapel built of corrugated iron - one of North Yorkshire's hidden gems. Although for how much longer this small chapel will remain standing hangs in the balance. This blog post doesn't dive into the chapel's history, largely because any substantial historical... Continue Reading →
All Saints North Street: Stained Glass Window Restoration and Preservation – Part 2
I was very pleased to see my first project update (posted 11.02.2021) was read by so many people directed through from Twitter. It isn't surprising that the on-going restoration of the church's medieval stained glass is of public interest, so as long as these updates keep being favourably received during lockdown, I'll keep them coming. I'm... Continue Reading →
All Saints North Street: Stained Glass Window Restoration and Preservation – Part 1
As life in the UK at the start of 2021 cruises quietly from one sombre month to another under lockdown 3.0, I expect that such a genuinely exciting piece of heritage news as the beginning of a major restoration project to preserve some of our country's best surviving medieval stained glass may have been lost... Continue Reading →
Finding the Medieval Facade of Wakefield’s Bridge Chantry Chapel
Wakefield district council describes its own post-industrial landscape as ‘a place of independent spirit, of rich heritage and culture’. With ‘beautiful outdoor spaces, historic woodland and country parks galore’, visitors are invited to ‘wander among the romantic ruins of medieval castles’. You may have to know your way around the area to tick each of... Continue Reading →
Guest Blog: St. Thomas Porch, Salisbury Cathedral
Text and images kindly contributed by Steve Dunn (15.07.2020). All images are the author’s own unless stated. Figure 6. credit here [accessed 15.07.2020]. St. Thomas Porch - Salisbury Cathedral Gone but not forgotten Figure 1. Salisbury Cathedral. At the consecration of Salisbury Cathedral on the 28th April 1258 the assembled dignitaries must have viewed the... Continue Reading →
Lost Churches of York: St. Mary-ad-Valvas
A lot of valuable research continues to inform our understanding of settlement and activity in the pre-Conquest city, but generally very little is known about the early churches in the central area of York. In the later 11th century York began to flourish and by c.1100 the number of new ecclesiastical foundations was well on... Continue Reading →
Rebuilding Doncaster’s Parish Church. Destroyed by Fire, 1853 (part II)
The old parish church. The Building Committee George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett Denison need little introduction. Scott, the eminent architect and manager of the largest architectural office in the country, was constantly on the move, occupied with any number of engagements at one time; Beckett, the Victorian busybody and controversialist, who was “notorious as... Continue Reading →
Rebuilding Doncaster’s Parish Church. Destroyed by Fire, 1853 (part I)
The Fire By the time two fire engines arrived at 5:00am from York to assist in extinguishing a fire, which, when called for two hours earlier they had been told was spreading furiously throughout St. George’s parish church, the crowning jewel of Doncaster was a ‘heated wreck upon the floor’; ‘a scanty heap of stone... Continue Reading →
Report on findings after stonework repair at St. Margaret’s, Millington 2019/2020
St. Margaret's is without any question one of my favourite rural parish churches in the East Riding (Yorkshire), and one of my most visited. I reckon my first visit to Millington to see St. Margaret's was a couple of years after Rita Wood visited in 2003, from which a report was written on the building's... Continue Reading →
Parish Church to Parish Room. The demolition of St. Crux, York
'All the repeated efforts of the Society have been useless to preserve this fine old building, with its stately tower. The practical demolition of this church is one of those acts which, frequently repeated in York, are rapidly reducing this grand old city - once one of the most beautiful and picturesque in England -... Continue Reading →