St Michael's Church, Coxwold
In the beginning
When Christianity came to England, the sites of pagan temples which were converted to churches were often dedicated to St Michael and all Angels, presumably to ensure the old gods were outnumbered. There is no doubt that St Michael's Church, Coxwold, was one of the first churches in Yorkshire and is probably built on the site of a pagan temple.
The people of Northumbria were converted to Christianity in 627 AD when St Paulinus visited King Edwin who lived near York, probably at Topcliffe. The story is told Venerable Bede writing in 731 AD.
When the King had heard Paulinus preach he consulted his nobles, one of whom said: “The life of man, O King, compared with the time of which we know not, is like the flight of a sparrow through this ball. There you sit at meat with your chieftains and servants in Winter time, with a fire blazing in the midst and rain and storm blustering outside, and in it flies through one door and out of the other. While it is inside it is not touched by the winter storm, after a little while of calm it vanishes from sight into the winter again. Thus we see the life of man for a span, but what came before or after we know not. If the New Teaching brings sure knowledge of the after Ii we must follow it."
King Edwin then ordered all his tribe to be baptised by Paulinus in the river Swale. The Venerable Bede tells how Coifi, the ex-pagan chief priest, mounted on a stallion with sword girded and grasping a lance, rode off to destroy the shrine and idols. I like to think it might have been to Coxwold that Coifi rode.
The first positive mention of a church at Coxwold is in a letter from Pope Paul 1, dated 757 AD, telling King Eadbert of Northumbria to repair three Minsters, those at York, Ripon and Coxwold. We can assume from this that there was a Saxon centre of Christian worship here from about 700 AD, also a Saxon Manor and Parish.
Records do not report if King Eadbert carried out repairs but the Saxon building was replaced by a Norman one during the late 11th century. This Norman church was in its turn replaced by the present "perpendicular style" church which was built between 1420 and 1430. Except for minor repairs this church still stands as it was built.
Looking down the nave you will see the Royal Coat of Arms of King George II over the chancel arch, which divides the main body of the church from the narrower chancel. The Royal Arms were first used in churches at the time of King Henry VIII to remind everyone that the English monarch rather than the Pope was now the authority responsible for seeing that the Church's laws were obeyed.
On either side are the armorial bearings Of the Earls of Fauconberg, with the motto being a pun on the family name of Belasyse: “Bonne et Belle Assez” (To be good and beautiful is enough).
Detail of roof boss in nave depicting a heraldic lion
The Royal Coat of Arms is that used from the accession to the throne of the Hanovers in 1714 until the lapse of the claim by the English king to the throne of France in 1801. The four quarters are the leopards of England and the lion of Scotland side by side, the fleur de lys of France, the harp of Ireland, and lastly a composition of the devices of Hanover, Luneberg and Westphalia with the crown of Charlemagne in the centre.
The magnificent nave ceiling, which is unusually wide, is made of oak. It is the original ceiling and still looks very much as it did when built in 1420. Some woodwork has had to be renewed and the bosses repainted. The bosses’ decorative plaques at the intersection of the roof beams - include the amorial bearings of families prominent in the county of Yorkshire in the early 15th century: they include those of the Percys, Nevils, Mowbrays, Colvils and Stutelys.
In addition there are some grotesques, perhaps showing a certain disregard for the great families by the craftsmen of the day. In 1904 during restoration of the ceiling the shield of the arms of Wombwell quartering Belasyse was introduced over the Lady Chapel at the right of the nave.
The windows at the north side of the nave are filled with stained glass. The glass in the tracery lights is very old. Some of it may be as much as 100 years older than the building, coming from an earlier Norman church. The larger panels memorials to members of the Wombwell family are of Victorian glass, not to everyone's taste but the very best of its type. Also on the north wall are memorials to the two soldier sons of Sir George and Lady Wombwell.
At the west end of the nave there is a gallery containing the organ. This is a new instrument installed in 1972 by Church & Sons. Until recent times the choir also had their seats in the gallery.
At the back of the gallery are two diamond-shaped funereal hatchments of the Fauconberg arms, placed there after the deaths of members of the family. Below these hatchments can be seen black lettering, which is just discernable as the Lord's Prayer. The date of this lettering is not known.
Under the gallery, just to the left of the vestry door, may be seen the signatures of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, together with those of Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, her husband the Earl of Harewood and members of their suite. They visited the church while staying at Newburgh Priory as guests of Captain V.M. Wombwell.
The pews are “box pews" and many still have locks dating from the time when each family in the village rented its own pew. Until 1906 the pew backs and sides were about 18 inches higher than at present. They were reduced to their present size by the joiners taking off wood from the bottom of the pews.
At the same time the pulpit was reduced from being a "three decker" by the removal of the bottom deck. The original pews and pulpit were the idea of the parson at the time who was the author, the Reverend Laurence Sterne, perhaps best known for his novel “Tristram Shandy”. They were built while he was the incumbent during the period 1760 - 1768.
In the floor of the aisle, as you approach the chancel arch, is a black slab with two brass plates. One of these records the death of Sir John Manston, who died in 1464. The name of his wife Elizabeth is added with a blank space for the date of her death. The date was never inserted, and as there is no parish record of burials before 1583 a mystery remains as to whether she was buried by the side of her husband.
In the nave you will find four carvings of a little mouse, the trade mark of Robert Thompson, a well-known furniture maker whose family business is still in Kilburn, a neighbouring village. Two of these are in the Lady chapel, one being clearly visible under the ledge of the niche in the wall. The third mouse is on the lectern stand. The top of the lectern was carved by Josef Heu, a distinguished Austrian sculptor who found refuge in Coxwold in 1941 after fleeing from the Nazis.
The fourth mouse is on the Bible case which contains a “Breeches Bible”, so-called from the use of the word in verse 7, chapter 3 of Book of Genesis, which in modern versions is given as “loincloths”. It is more properly called the Geneva Bible. This Bible was printed in 1601 by Robert Barker, printer to Queen Elizabeth 1.
I would like to thank Ted Schofield and Patrick Grice for their help with the information on Coxwold Church.
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