Church Heritage Record 643028

West tower, 4-bay nave, north aisle and south porch, chancel and north vestry.

Nave 10m (31ft) by 5m (15’6ft).

The church is the first on the site. It was designed by G E Street in 1871 and built in 1872-75 for Sir Tatton Sykes of Sledmere House, who also renovated another 13 churches in the local area. The original drawings are still held at the RIBA. The north aisle and vestry were added by Temple Moore in 1893, presumably to cope with an increasing population. An episode of cleaning and restoration in 1997 is recorded on a plaque within the church.

The surrounding area centred around West Heslerton is an archaeological site of national importance, with earthworks and underground remains of a substantial Romano-British and Saxon proto-urban settlement. The large-scale excavations here have changed our perception of the late Roman and early Saxon period. There are also substantial medieval and post-medieval remains, including the nationally important site of Wharram Percy, and of course the other medieval churches in the area. There are also several prehistoric sites, the closest known being a Neolithic long barrow ½ mile south-east of the church, excavated in the 19th century and now mostly ploughed out.

This is a high quality church by Street, quite different in character to neighbouring West Lutton St Mary. It is more orthodox in terms of architectural style, rooted firmly in the Geometrical of the early 14th century, but using the motifs in original ways. Only Temple Moore’s spiky tracery in the north aisle west window sounds a slightly discordant note, perhaps deliberately.

The church has a dominating 3-stage tower reminiscent of that at East Heslerton, with a low broach spire with bands and gablets, surmounted by a cockerel weather-vane.  It stands on a moulded plinth, with a half-hexagonal stair turret to the south east.  This has a sloped top and a statue of St Peter, probably by Redfern, set in a niche beneath a gabled canopy. The west face is pierced by a 3-light west window with cinquefoil tracery beneath two trefoil-headed lights. Above this a string-course defines the belfry stage, which has pointed openings of paired cusped lights with pierced shutters beneath leaf-stopped hood-moulds to each face.  A  moulded sill band runs around the church. 

The west end of the north aisle has angle buttresses and a 3-light window with cusped heads and a spiky cross in the head, beneath a continuous moulded string-course which is gabled over the window. This string-course continues around the aisle across the top of the buttresses and the windows. The three eastern bays are pierced by 2-light windows with cusped heads and a cinquefoil above, the western aisle bay is taken up by a pointed doorway with a filleted, roll-moulded arch. The buttresses are of two steep weatherings.

The main south entrance is within a fine gabled porch, with three stepped cusped lancets over an eaves level string-course in the gable.  The outer entrance has a continuous moulded pointed arch of two orders, beneath a coved hood-mould without stops.  The porch is tunnel-vaulted internally, with a pointed inner doorway.  Street has made subtle use of the roof lines, the roof of the porch breaking into the nave roof, the chancel roof projecting slightly above the nave.  All gables are coped and have stone cross finials.

The nave south wall is pierced by two 2-light windows with cusped heads and a trefoil above. The eastern bay has a broad shouldered buttress on a moulded chamfered plinth, pierced by a tiny pointed niche.   Adjacent to this at the junction with the south wall of the chancel is a gabled buttress, to the east of which is a pair of 2-light windows of the same style as the nave windows. There is a small 2-light window in the north chancel wall. The east wall of the chancel has a central dwarf gabled buttress beneath a pointed window of five cusped lancets and a hood-mould over with leaf stops.

The north vestry has a moulded eaves string-course which steps up over a pair of 2-light square-headed windows in the east wall and the square-headed north door. The aisle and vestry have plain parapets, the aisle roof gabled, the vestry flat-roofed. A large chimney stack rises from the nave roof adjacent to the vestry.

The interior of the church is high Victorian in character, with lavishly decorated roofs and furnishings and fittings of high quality, all suffused in coloured light from the many stained glass windows. The walls are bare, and the lack of a clearstorey means that artificial light is always needed.

Looking first west, the tower arch is tall, narrow and of three orders, the inner chamfered and dying into the sides, the outer two roll-moulded and continuing as side shafts with annulets. The tower ceiling is panelled and painted, with stars in relief and a central dove. The nave roof is arch-braced to a collar with cusped wind-braced purlins, while the aisles have corbelled arch-braces with bosses and a moulded ridge piece. 

The north arcade has pointed arches of two orders, carried on clustered columns with moulded capitals.  At the east end of the aisle is an altar recess within its own pointed arch, within which is a fine carved stone reredos by Temple Moore, of three crocketed ogee-arched niches containing sculpted figures of the Virgin and Child flanked by angels. There is a panelled frieze below, behind the altar itself which is of ashlar and plain. Set into the north side wall of the niche is a piscina, 14th-century in style.  The bench pews in the nave are also by Temple Moore.  The floor in the nave and aisle has chequerboard tiles.

The chancel arch is pointed, broad and double-chamfered, and dies into the walls. The chancel is entered through a low wrought-iron chancel screen, up a total of eight steps to the altar and stone reredos by Street with marble niches, integral with the wall and flanked by blind tracery panels. There is an elaborately carved double sedilia and piscina in the south wall, and a large pointed aumbry opposite. The door to the vestry is pointed with a hood-mould and leaf stops. The chancel roof is panelled and painted with flowers on a red and gold background, and the floor has encaustic tiles of a similar richness.