Church Heritage Record 643227

The church of St. Mary’s is cruciform in shape with a 6-bay aisled nave, a porch to the south, a central tower, and a five-bay chancel. Two 3-bayed aisled transepts flank the building on the south-east side and with a large chapel to the north-east. The north east corner is occupied by a smaller chapel of two bays and a one-bay sacristy.

The nave measures 6m (21ft) x 29m (94ft), the aisles of which are 5m (15ft) wide and run its length. The tower is 10m (32ft) squared. The chancel measures 16m (52ft) x 8m (27ft) also with aisles 3m (11ft) wide. The south transept measures 6m (21ft) x 11m (37ft) and due to a slight setting out error is set askew from the rest of the church. The northern arm by contrast measures larger at 17m (58ft) x 12m (38ft), by virtue of a later addition of the chapel. The crypt and chapel above within this arm measures 7m (23ft) x 6m (21ft). The south side porch measures 5m (15ft) x 6m (19ft).

Founded in 1120, St Mary’s steadily grew in popularity amongst the citizens of Beverley, the town’s trade guilds and the mercantile class who aspired to develop their own parish church. The following four hundred years were characterised by almost continuous addition, as the modern parish church we see today slowly emerged.

The north-east transept chapel was built c.1280. The church was then substantially rebuilt in the late 14th and 15th centuries, spanning the Decorated and Perpendicular styles.  The tower was rebuilt after its collapse in 1520, which also necessitated extensive rebuilding of the nave. The principal 19th-century restorations were that of 1840s-50s by Augustus Welby Northmore and Edward Welby Pugin, and of 1864-7 by Sir Gilbert Scott.

Archaeology

The archaeological potential of the site of St Mary's and its environs is high with evidence of activity from the early medieval period onwards likely to be discovered by any potential excavation. 

Prehistoric

Archaeological investigation has provided evidence for settlement and activity in the Neolithic and Iron Age periods. There are a number of scattered findspots within the town.  More substantive remains of prehistoric date lie on the western side of Beverley on higher ground at Westwood Common. Here a group of both Neolithic to Bronze age Bowl Barrows and Iron Age Square Barrows survive along with evidence of late Iron Age enclosures and field systems. The potential for finds of this period from the churchyard is low.

Roman

Roman coins and other settlement material have been found in the parish and town, of the 2nd century and later. The potential for finds of this period from the churchyard is low.

Anglian

The market town of Beverley, positioned on the edge of the Wolds, owes its significance to its ecclesiastical origins. The importance of the town developed alongside the growing significance of the Minster and it is evident that the site of the Minster has been home to a place of worship for approximately 1300 years. It is widely accepted that it derived its pre-Conquest influence from association with Bishop John of York and is the site of Inderawuda, where according to Bede John founded a monastery on his retirement in c. 714.

Archaeological excavations at nearby Lurk Lane revealed what is thought to be part of an early monastic enclosure with 8th-century origins, and more recent investigation to the south of the Minster’s nave indicates a probable Saxon church positioned at a different alignment to the present building. The potential for finds of this period from St Mary’s is church low.

Saxon

The Minster’s re-foundation as a collegiate church of secular canons is commonly attributed to King Aethelstan in the early 10th century, although some scholars consider its establishment to be the result of a gradual process of endowment, retrospectively assigned to Aethelstan for the prestige which might be inferred by such royal patronage. The potential for finds of this period from St Mary’s church is low.

Medieval 

The town continued to grow under the Normans when its trading industry was first established. Beverley became a notable wool-trading town with connections to the Hanseatic League, and for a time in the 15th century was the tenth-largest town in England, as well as one of the richest, because of its role in the wool trade, and the pilgrims who came to venerate St John of Beverley.  The development of St Mary’s is a product and symbol of the wealth of the citizens and guilds of Beverley at this time. The potential for finds of this period from St Mary's churchyard is high, including human remains.

Post-Reformation

Following the Reformation, the regional stature of Beverley was much reduced, as the pilgrimages ceased. The Minster was passed over as a potential cathedral, but maintained a regional role. Beverley became a prosperous market town, with light industry developing from the 18th century onwards.

19th century

Restoration of St Mary’s occured at this time.  The railway comes to Beverley, development of the race course, expansion of local industry, and revival of the town.

20th century

In the 20th century, Beverley was the administrative centre of the local government district of the Borough of Beverley (1974-1996). It is now the County Town of the East Riding. In the latter half of the century it became a prosperous market town with a number of commuters and retired people, and the tourist industry gained in importance

The church building is the product a complex series of medieval, late-medieval and 19th century building campaigns, spanning over nine hundred years. The result is a church predominantly of the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with some traces of an earlier date. Such examples of ambitious design and well-executed architecture in a town church are perhaps indicative of a desire to assert itself against the grandeur of the nearby Minster. However, the size of St. Mary’s can be better attributed to the prosperity of the town during the 14th and 15th centuries, when the wealthy mercantile class invested heavily in its expansion.

The West Front

The Perpendicular west front of St. Mary’s presents an impressive façade as one enters the town from North Bar Within. It is divided into three bays by two large turreted buttresses, also of the perpendicular style. The seven-light west window is divided mid-way by a battlemented transom, below which the heads of the lower lights are arched and cusped. The acutely pointed arch, complete with panelled Perpendicular tracery, forms over the middle of the elevation, and echoes the design of the east window of Beverley Minster. The tracery was mostly renewed during the 19th century restorations under A. W. N. Pugin, though the sweep of the four-centred arch contains a rich profusion of original fifteenth-century ornament.

Beneath this, an elaborate doorway gives access to the nave. Each jamb has two pairs of shafts with leaf capitals and battlemented abaci. Between these pairs of shafts the hollows are decorated with a rich profusion of small ornament indicating that although this doorway is technically Perpendicular, it retains elements of the Decorated style. The remainder of the elevation is finished with a pierced battlement and is flanked by a three-light panelled window on the west end of each aisle.

Porch

The porch features an ogee gable with cusping and niches on either side. Having been extensively renewed during the Victorian restorations, the two shafts on each jamb are divided by a wide hollow and decorated with large paterae and grotesque heads. In each of its two bays on each side is a pair of slender two-light windows of the Perpendicular style. However, the most interesting feature of the porch is undoubtedly its diagonal and ridge-ribbed vaulting, complete with gilded floral bosses at all rib intersections.

Nave (South)

The first three windows of the south side of the nave have cusped and intersected tracery, whereas the final two are Geometric in character. The clerestory of the nave, which is very high, contains seven three-light windows interspersed by the remains of six pinnacles.

South Transept

The south transept has two series of windows, divided by pinnacle buttresses. The south window tracery is thought to date to a restoration preceding Pugin’s, and therefore cannot be original.The windows of the south transept aisle, two on the east and one on the south are Perpendicular, and each of three lights with chamfered jambs of two orders. Their arches are filled with intersecting tracery.

The original entrance to the south transept is in the Perpendicular style, with the spandrel of the ogee arch being fitted with bosses of masks and foliage, and in the smaller inner hollow, with small fleurons. The doorway to the transept is similar to that of the porch, though flanked by two elegant flying buttresses provided in the 1850s when the two Pugins were restoring the church. These buttresses, built for the purpose of supporting this part of the fabric, are surmounted by very large and elegant crocketed pinnacles, and add much to the vertical dominance of the elevation.

Chancel (South)

The windows of the south chancel aisle are similar to those of the transept aisle, but both heads of the lights and the tracery openings are cusped, and the window arches are segmental, struck from the centres a little below the springing-line.

The East End

The high east window of five lights is Perpendicular and is flanked by crocketed turret spirelets of an earlier date. The south chancel aisle has windows with cusped intersecting tracery, a form of the early 14th century. The north chancel aisle – really a chapel – has Decorated windows with Curvilinear tracery as well as an upper storey.

St. Michael’s Chapel and Sacristy (North)

When the north arcade was built between 1325 and 1345, St. Michael’s chapel was thrown out from the north transept, and although small, this scheme of works represents one of the most interesting pieces of architecture in the church. The windows feature Geometric Curvilinear tracery, suggesting a date in the first half of the 14th century.

The splendid Curvilinear east window of St. Michael’s chapel is of four lights, and the main lines of its tracery are formed by two ogees, each including the arches of two lights. A detail worth noting is the ogee form in the middle cusping in the heads of the lights and in three of the figures within the centre piece. The two windows in the easternmost and middle bays on the north side are of a similar form to this. The east window of the sacristy has only two lights, the heads of which are also ogees. Part of the side light of this window, as of the adjoining window in the chapel of the Holy Trinity is intercepted by the pier in the internal angle between them.

North Transept

The northern arm of the transept is similar to that of its southern counterpart, although Perpendicular in style, and original. The buttresses here have diagonally set pinnacles, and the transept is far squarer with the nave than the southern transept, most likely due to an error in setting out.

Nave (North)

The nave aisle is of seven bays and contains six windows of a strikingly similar character to that of the southern aisle. Its clerestory, added between 1380 and 1390, is formed of seven windows all of three lights, and once more pinnacles are placed alternately along the top.

The Tower

The dominant central tower was until 1520, built on the original 12th century foundations. However, on April 29 1520, during divine service, the old tower, weakened by successive alterations and heightened for the new clerestories, patched and buttressed up, gave way and collapsed. The reconstruction of the tower as it presently stands was finished in 1524, and was an extraordinary feat given the damage from the collapse. The new tower, a prime example of the Perpendicular style, has double buttresses at the angles, a circular window in each face of its first storey, and windows of four lights in the upper storey.

The Nave

The present nave arcades date entirely from after the fall of the tower and stylistically are very similar. However, subtle differences in their form reflect minor variances in their construction. This is manifested particularly in the northern arcade, supporting the notion that stones from the original 13th century arcade were reused. The piers of these arcades have four shafts and four hollows, and there are hood-mould stops throughout. On the north arcade the stops to the hood-moulds are carved with small busts of men and women holding scrolls, and forms an interesting record of people who rallied and helped in the rebuilding of the nave. The eastern pier, before the respond, was given by the Guild of Minstrels and on the east side of this pier, on the corbels, stands five figures of minstrels. The arcade arches are of two chamfered orders. The clerestories consist of seven slightly irregularly spaced windows, added to the arcade between 1380 and 1390. The windows are all of three-lights and the terminations of the internal hood-moulds bear, on the two westernmost windows of the south side, the emblems of the four evangelists. The easternmost windows on this side show angels bearing the instruments of the Passion. The original timber-framed and panelled roof is of a 15th-century date, and depicts gold stars on a blue background.

The Chancel

The south arcade of the chancel was completed slightly before the north, and features four filleted shafts connected by deep hollows. The clerestory with its descending mullions is in the Perpendicular style. The piers are similar, but the edges of the hollows are rounded and the fillets are carried up into the capitals. They have three fillets to each shaft, steeper bases and polygonal abaci, the latter typically – but not here – an indication that one is approaching the Perpendicular. The trefoils in the spandrels have small studs as decoration of the early 14th century – and the arches drop into short, vertical continuations of their piers. The ceiling here – an interesting scheme of paintings dating to 1445 – depicts forty kings accompanied by their dates and inscriptions below a slightly pitched roof. Those depicted form a strange collection. The fifteen post-Conquest kings, between William I and Henry VI occupy the panels at the east end of the ceiling. Further west there is an assortment of pre-Conquest kings, and in the south-west corner four legendary pre-Christian kings. The south chancel aisle is occupied by the chapel of St. Katherine.

The Transepts and Crypt

The two-centred arches on the east side of the north transept are of two orders. The inner order is decorated with dog-tooth ornament between two filleted rolls, flanked by hollows. The outer order on each side has a keeled roll, with a sharp reversed curve on each side of the arris. This transept, now used as a vestry, and containing the church organ, is abutted by the chapel of Holy Trinity which sits on top of the crypt.

Originally a charnel house, the crypt is vaulted with a simple but cleverly designed stone vault, with transverse, diagonal and ridge ribs of square chamfered section, springing from octagonal piers on the centre line. Originally the crypt was twice the size, extending right through to the then existing north wall of the 12th century chancel.

The south transept, by contrast, is smaller and less interesting architecturally than the north, set slightly askew from the rest of the church. Currently it is used as a kitchen area, and has modern facilities on its western side. The arches on the east side of the south transept are pointed, also of two orders and bear hood-moulds. Their mouldings indicate a more advanced date than those on the corresponding arches of the north transept. The inner order shows a dog-tooth ornament, set in small hollows between two filleted rolls, flanked by filleted hollows. The outer order has a single, rather flat filleted roll, flanked by filleted hollows.

Chapel of St Michael and Sacristy

When the north arcade was built, three bays of the chancel aisle were made into a superb chapel with tierceron-star vaulting. This means, that by the necessity of its supports that the corresponding arcade piers are totally different on their north and south sides. The difficulty was partly solved by a brilliant intersecting of ribs, a device familiar much later in France and Germany, but anticipated here in the second quarter of the 14th century. Attached to the chapel is a one-bay sacristy, also adorned with tierceron-star vaulting. The internal windows of this room to the south and west have full flowing tracery and the enclosing wall contains a doorway, flanked by a sheep’s head and a pilgrim rabbit, believed to have inspired Lewis Carrol’s white rabbit.The transepts and crossing continue with polygonal abaci.

The south-east corner of the chapel contains a doorway, surmounted by the Beverley imp. Behind the door a staircase at the south east corner of the chapel gives access to a low upper storey, consisting of two rooms over the chapel and sacristy. The staircase is telescopic, each stage smaller than the previous step, and is topped by a small vault of seven ribs radiating from the central column. The larger room is lit from the east by a pointed arched window of three lights. The other windows of this storey, two in the north side of the larger room and one to the east and north of the smaller, are each of two lights. The rooms are now used as a small museum and contain, among other artefacts, some sections of the original panelling from the chancel ceiling and fragments of the original screens from the church.

The Tower

The large central tower, rebuilt in 1520, is pierced on all four sides by arches of three chamfered orders, moulded capitals and bases. If we examine the ends of the clerestories of the chancel and transept next to the tower, we can easily recognise where the work of the rebuilt tower joins the earlier work of the clerestories. Due to this work, the piers, which were no longer suitable when the tower was raised, had to be heightened themselves and now lead to a beautifully painted and gilded ceiling. A stair in the north-east pier takes you up the tower, and the belfry stage is entered through another pointed arch. St Mary’s has a fine peel of ten bells housed in an iron frame at this level. Above this, one exits onto the lead-clad roof through a trapdoor.

Fixtures and Fittings

It is almost impossible to sum up such a disparate collection of objects in any meaningful way without a more substantial description. Work is ongoing to provide an Inventory of these. What may be said, however, is that though all of the fittings vary in date, they nonetheless all contribute to the general character of the church. The most significant collection, and one which is already under scrutiny, is that of the Priest’s room. A brief description of the contents on permanent exhibition within the priest’s room follows, and highlights many of the most significant items to be considered for future work.

The Centre Stone

Historically the most important item in the priest’s room is the piece of beautifully carved stone on the centre table. This stone, only found recently, has on it graffiti from 1330, confirming beyond doubt the architect of St Michael’s chapel, the sacristy and the priest’s rooms themselves, to be Ivo de Raughton. The graffiti comprises of a personal mark, and a name in 14th century script.

Stones on the North Side of the Room

These finely carved pieces of stone, comprising pinnacles, shafts, and gablets, are most probably part of the Easter sepulchre which is known to have been within the church. This would have stood within the fourth bay from the east on the north side of the chancel – the traditional position for an Easter sepulchre.

Rood Loft

Many fragments of the beams and decorative tracery, beautifully carved in oak and chestnut, and showing traces of their original colour. The rood screen, of which part still exists, once stood beneath the tower arch.

Parclose Screen

Portions of screens originally enclosing the sanctuary in the second quarter of the 14th century have also been kept in the rooms.

Ceiling Bosses

Many roof bosses, taken from the 15th century roofs, with their original colouring and gilding are housed in these rooms as well. A recent survey has recorded the in situ bosses of the nave roof.

Chancel Ceiling Panels

Portions of the original chancel ceiling panels, with their original colour and gold dating to 1445, are kept in the north-east corner of the room. The fragments have been assembled to show an almost complete panel of Edward III, and parts of the panels of Stephen and Henry VI.

Maiden’s Garland

The priest’s room houses the oldest surviving example of a Maiden’s garland in England, dating to 1680.

Weather Vane

The church’s 19th century weather-vane was allegedly designed by A. W. Pugin on a napkin immediately before his death in 1852. It was then built by his son E. W. Pugin, and fitted to the church in the second half of the 19th century.

Portion of Corporation Pew

Part one of two pews which formerly stood in the church at each end of the north aisle of the nave. The beautifully carved and undercut lettering recounts the disaster which befell the church in 1520, when the tower collapsed.