Description

NORTH YORKSHIRE HARROGATE 5338 SE 36 NE ROECLIFFE THE GREEN (north side, off)

2/49 Church of St Mary

15.3.66

GV II*

Church. 1843 by R H Sharp for Andrew Lawson of Aldborough Manor. In neo- Norman style. Coursed squared limestone, red tile roof. Single cell building with 3-bay nave and very shallow chancel, west bellcote and north- east vestry. The large plank door to bay 1 has a ring handle; the doorway is of 2 round orders, the attached columns having cushion capitals. 3 large raking buttresses to south and 2 to north walls. Roll-moulded round-arched windows throughout, narrow windows to chancel. The west window is flanked by colonnettes. The bellcote has a pitched roof and single bell. Massive stone copings to gables. Interior: the barrel-vaulted ashlar roof rises directly from the side walls. A thick semicircular roll-moulding on nook- shafts with cushion capitals denotes the shallow sanctuary which is reached by 5 black and white marble steps. Much reused C16 and C17 black oak: the octagonal pulpit and reading desk with geometric panels and balusters, 3 carved panels in the squire's pew on the south side, dated 1619, and linen- fold panelling on the east wall and between nave and vestry. The vestry doorway is ogee-headed with traceried carved door. More early woodwork in the vestry: carved friezes in relief with biblical scenes including nativity, flight into Egypt, David and Goliath and Salome. Other wood carvings include heads of putti, swags and classical capitals. The vestry corner fireplace has a round arch, the voussoirs carved with crude representations of faces and animals. The late C19 brass wall plaques of the Lawson family and the east window showing the Virgin and Child with Latin inscription by Barnett of York were being removed at time of resurvey, as were the original raking pews built against the north, south and west walls, surrounding a set of benches in the middle. The church is maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund and undergoing restoration at time of resurvey. The Jacobean pulpit came from Holy Trinity Hull, the C15 vestry door and the marble sanctuary steps from York Minster following the 1829 fire there. The church is considered to be a remarkably enterprising essay in the neo-Norman style for this period, especially in the use of the barrel vault. R H Sharpe also rebuilt the street frontage of Aldborough Manor for the Lawson family.

Listing NGR: SE3756266019

External Links

• St Mary's Church, Roecliffe at Wikipedia
• St Mary's Church, Roecliffe official website
• Wikidata Q7594413

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)