Church Of St Olave

Church of St Olave, York

A parish church built in the late 15th century on 13th-century foundations, with substantial remodelling in the early 18th century, and further major work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The chancel dates from 1889 and was enlarged in 1908; the vestry was built in 1898 and converted to a South Chapel in 1908; the organ chamber was added in 1907 and a new vestry in 1908. The late 19th and early 20th-century work was carried out by G Fowler Jones of York and JF Doyle of Liverpool. The church is constructed of magnesian limestone ashlar with tiled and lead roofs.

The plan consists of an aisled nave of six unequal bays, a two-bay chancel with an organ chamber and vestry to the north and a chapel to the south, a west tower, and a second vestry to the north west.

The east end features a buttressed gable with a window of five cinquefoiled lights and panel-traceried head in a two-centred arch of voussoirs. The vestry and chapel east ends are also gabled: the vestry has a window of three trefoiled lights in a two-centred head, while the chapel has a three-light window with a panel-traceried four-centred head. On the north side, the chancel is largely obscured behind the vestry and organ chamber. The vestry has a pointed panelled door and two trefoil-headed windows with square leaded lights; the organ chamber has two trefoiled windows with four-centred heads. The nave stands on a moulded plinth, divided by two-stage buttresses. An arched north doorway of three continuously moulded orders contains a 18th-century panelled door with original furniture. Above it is a reset 15th-century vaulted niche with crocketed pinnacles containing a standing sculpted figure, presumably St Olave. The windows are of three lights with panel tracery in hollow-chamfered three- or four-centred openings and coved hoodmoulds; two of the easternmost windows are re-used. The westernmost window is square-headed with two trefoiled lights. The parapet is embattled with gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles.

The south side features a chancel with three windows with traceried two-centred heads. A single-storey chapel in front has a doorway with a shaped head and two windows of two trefoiled lights with panel tracery in two-centred heads. The nave is divided by three-stage buttresses, with earlier footings visible beneath a chamfered plinth. An 18th-century south door is panelled with a two-centred head and original furniture including a knocker, set in a double-chamfered arched opening. Three windows are of three lights with panel-traceried three-centred heads; one has three cinquefoiled lights in a four-centred head; all are hollow-chamfered. The westernmost window has two cinquefoiled lights in a splayed surround. The chancel has a moulded eaves string beneath an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles, while the nave and chapel have plain parapets. On the south side a gargoyle waterspout discharges into a rainwater head dated 1908.

The west end comprises a four-stage tower which incorporates at its base a two-storey arch from the former Chapel of St Mary at the Gate. A weathered buttress and staircase project into the angle with the south aisle. The west window has three cinquefoiled lights with blind panel tracery in the two-centred head, and a small rectangular light in a splayed opening above. The belfry has four-centred louvred openings with hoodmoulds to each face. There is a weathered belfry string and a moulded string beneath a plain parapet with crocketed pinnacles and corner gargoyles.

The interior contains chancel arcades of three two-centred arches on quatrefoil shafts with moulded bases and capitals, with a continuous chamfered hoodmould supported on angel corbels. A two-centred chancel arch springs from carved corbels. The south chapel arch is four-centred and double-chamfered. The nave arcades have two-centred double-chamfered arches carried on octagonal and cylindrical piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch is tall and narrow, with three chamfered orders to the east and two to the west, springing from moulded imposts in splayed jambs. In the north wall of the tower, a tall round arch in a deeply splayed opening leads to the vestry; in the south wall is a tall pointed recess. South of the tower arch is a quoined and chamfered doorway to the tower stair. The north door is screened by a glazed and panelled partition with arcaded lights, and a reset stoup sits within a semicircular opening to the south.

The fittings include a traceried reredos and altarpiece with crocketed ogee arches, pinnacles, angels with musical instruments, and a carving of the Agnus Dei in high relief flanked by kneeling angels. An octagonal font on a stem with a moulded foot supports a 20th-century tiered cover. In the north aisle is an early 19th-century benefaction board with a segment arch and clustered side shafts, recording the period 1766–1871; in the south aisle is an 18th-century board in a moulded surround with an arched head, recording 1607–1740. At the east end of the north aisle is a carved stone cartouche with a painted shield bearing the Arms of Henry, Prince of Wales (died 1612). Above the South Chapel arch is a 15th-century low-relief carving of the Crucifixion; above the south door is an 18th-century marble Madonna and Child.

Monuments include a wall monument to George Hutchinson (died 1775) with a white urn on a black marble tablet; a wall tablet by the Fishers to Alathea Jordan, her husband and daughter, dated around 1778, with a white urn on grey marble; a shaped wall panel with an incised memorial to Michael Loftus (died 1762), described as "servant" of the Duke of Ormond; and a finely carved cartouche surrounded by cherubs and flowers, commemorating William Thornton and his son Robert, dated around 1724.