Church Of Saint Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

Parish church with 12th-century origins. The original medieval structure was largely demolished in the mid-13th century, probably around 1291 by the Rector of Adlingfleet, John le Franceys, to prevent its appropriation by Selby Abbey. The cemetery and church shell were granted to Selby Abbey in 1304, and the building was subsequently rebuilt in the early 14th century. The church underwent further alteration during the 14th and 15th centuries, with aisles rebuilt in 1582–3 and significant early 18th-century rebuilding including reroofing of the nave. Major restorations took place in 1898, including reroofing and construction of a new chancel.

The church comprises a west tower with a 4-bay aisled nave and 2-bay chancel. External walls combine limestone ashlar to the nave and lower tower stage, with red brick in English bond to the aisles (rendered and incised to imitate ashlar). The chancel is constructed of random rubble with limestone and sandstone ashlar dressings. Roofs are of slate to nave and aisles, with a lead roof to the chancel.

The tower is three stages, though the lowest stage now lies below ground level. It features a moulded plinth, full-height angle buttresses with offsets, and moulded string courses between stages. The tall first stage contains a blocked 14th-century pointed west doorway with two wave-moulded orders and a pointed 4-light transomed window with round-arched lights and plain Perpendicular tracery beneath a hoodmould. The second stage has a slit light to the south and a clock face to the north dated 1919. The top stage displays 4-centred-arched 2-light belfry openings with cinquefoiled lights and Perpendicular tracery. A moulded string course supports a coped embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles and plain replacement pinnacles at the centre of each side.

The aisles feature diagonal buttresses and buttresses between bays with offsets. The north and south doorways are pointed with double-chamfered mouldings; the north doorway has a hoodmould and studded oak door. Windows include 19th-century 4-centred-arched 3-light openings with cinquefoiled lights, incised spandrels, hoodmoulds and headstops. Original Tudor-arched single-light east windows and narrower single-light west windows with hoodmoulds survive. Both aisles carry coped embattled parapets; the northern is rendered brick while the southern is ashlar with a central relief panel bearing a cross and a worn, illegible date.

The chancel features a chamfered plinth and angle buttresses. Two pointed traceried 2-light south windows and a single similar north window light the space. The east window is pointed and traceried with four lights, hoodmould and headstops.

Interior

The nave arcades comprise pointed double-chamfered arches rising on octagonal piers and responds with plain moulded capitals. Those to the south aisle responds are more elaborate, with abaci mouldings continued as string courses. Most piers have broach stops to square bases. A tall pointed double-chamfered tower arch features moulded corbels to both inner and outer orders, the latter dying into the jambs. A chamfered segmental-headed doorway provides access to the tower spiral staircase, which has a notched newel. The chancel arch is pointed and double-chamfered on octagonal responds with moulded capitals and abaci continued as string courses. A 19th-century pointed chamfered arch opens to the north of the chancel.

The restored 18th-century 5-bay nave roof employs corbelled tie beams, king posts and queen struts with trefoiled panels between. Three tie beams carry ovolo chamfers and inscriptions, partly obscured by 19th-century brattished panels, with one bearing a possible date of 1727. The 19th-century chancel roof features ornate foliate ashlar corbels.

A 12-sided font with a roll-moulded bowl sits on a shaft with moulded base. Pine bench pews in the nave, probably of 16th–17th-century date, display ogee-mouldings and arm rests with roll motifs and carved floral ornament; 19th-century copies occupy the choir. A carved oak traceried reredos dates to 1901. Late 19th-century stained glass fills the east and south windows. Remains of a late 17th-century wooden frame turret clock survive at the west end of the nave.

Monuments

The south aisle contains a wall tablet to James Stovin of 1777, featuring a free-standing urn and obelisk base. A group of six late 18th–early 19th-century tablets to the Stovin family exhibits moulded ashlar surrounds with shaped heads, aprons, carved urns and foliate corbels. A large marble tablet to Elizabeth Stovin of 1768 displays a moulded ashlar surround with a cartouche bearing faded painted arms in a foliate surround. A small tablet commemorates Cornelius Stovin of Whitgift Hall, dated 1779, with a fluted base and cornice. A tablet to Thomas Coulman and family of Whitgift Hall of 1852 has a pilastered surround and was made by Skelton of York.

The north aisle holds pedimented wall tablets to John Bell of 1831 by W D Keyworth of Hull and to Robert Bell of 1859. Shaped wall tablets at the west end of the nave commemorate Rev William Romley of 1771 with an urn above and an apron hung with guttae and floral drops, and Robert Romley of 1812 with an urn and flaming lamps above and guttae and floral ornament below. A painted wooden board in an architrave records Elizabeth Romley and children of 1746. A large closely-inscribed pedimented tablet at the east end of the nave, dated around 1846, honours the Egremont family and was made by John Earle of Hull.

Graveslabs at the east end of the north aisle include a coffin-shaped slab with an incised panel beneath a cinquefoiled crocketed ogee arch, probably of 14th–15th-century date, later inscribed with the name ALLICIA. A rectangular slab of around 1500 bears incised arms and a worn Gothic border inscription, possibly commemorating Alexander and Elizabeth Aungier recorded here in the late 17th century. 18th-century slabs mark the graves of John Simpson (1733), Dorkas Margreve (1739) and William Thompson (1743), the latter featuring an incised segmental arch.