The York Story

This former parish church, now an exhibition centre, dates principally from the 15th century but incorporates substantial earlier fabric. Remnants of the early 11th-century nave survive, along with north arcades from the 12th and 14th centuries and a south arcade from the early 13th century. The church underwent restoration between 1867 and 1870 by William Butterfield, which included a new east window, re-roofing, and renewal of the east end parapet. It was declared redundant in 1958 and converted to an exhibition centre in 1974–75 by George Pace and Ronald Sims.

The building is constructed of magnesian limestone incorporating re-used gritstone, with roofs of slate and lead.

Exterior

The church comprises a chancel with north and south chapels, a three-bay nave with low clerestory, four-bay north and south aisles, and an embraced west tower with spire. The clerestory is obscured by a parapet that is embattled at the east end and on the south side but plain elsewhere. Buttresses with offsets support the church on all sides, most topped with gabled pinnacles and gargoyles. The chancel and chapels stand on a single chamfered plinth, whilst the remainder of the church and tower have a double chamfered plinth. Windows generally feature hoodmoulds on corbel or head stops.

The renewed east window is pointed, with three stepped cinquefoiled lights beneath panel tracery. The east window of the north chapel is also pointed, with three cinquefoiled lights beneath two tiers of panel tracery with embattled transoms. A sill band below the east window steps down beneath the north chapel window. The south chapel is set back and has a pointed east window of three lights, now altered to form a doorway.

On the north side, the easternmost bay contains an inserted pointed arched doorway. Towards the west end is a blocked 14th-century doorway with a two-centred moulded arch. Both doors sit beneath square-headed windows. The windows are generally square-headed, with two or three trefoiled or cinquefoiled ogee-arched lights beneath embattled transoms and panel tracery. Towards the east end is a reset square-headed 14th-century window of four trefoiled lights with cusped curvilinear tracery. The western window beneath the tower is pointed, with three foiled ogee-arched lights beneath two tiers of panel tracery. A moulded string course, stepped in places, runs beneath the windows.

The 19th-century south door sits within a pointed arch of two orders—the inner chamfered, the outer roll-moulded and springing from carved corbels—with a square-headed window above. To the west of the door, a length of 13th-century masonry incorporating an original lancet survives. Below and to the west of the chancel south window is a blocked segment-arched doorway. Elsewhere, windows correspond to those on the north side.

The three-stage tower has a square ground stage surmounted by an embattled parapet and walkway. The second and belfry stages are octagonal, with broaches at the base from which tapering buttresses with gargoyles rise above a plain parapet to crocketed pinnacles. The recessed spire is octagonal. The pointed west window has five cinquefoiled lights beneath a double tier of panel tracery with embattled transoms. On each side of the window is a carved corbel beneath a trefoiled ogee-arched canopy, rib-vaulted on the underside and surmounted by a crocket. Above the window is a vaulted niche with a trefoiled arch and steep crocketed canopy, housing a defaced figure of the Virgin Mary seated behind a balustrade. At the west end of the north aisle is a doorway in a four-centred moulded arch, to the south of a low window of five foiled lights—three round-headed, two lancets. Above this is a pointed window of three trefoiled round-headed lights beneath a panel tracery head broken by an encircled quatrefoil. Windows at the west end of the south aisle and the south face of the tower are of the same type. The upper stages of the tower have tall similar windows, partly louvred and banded with panel tracery at belfry level, on three cardinal faces. The fourth face, to the east, has intersecting tracery in the head. The tall spire is crowned by a gilded weathercock.

Interior

Chancel

The three-bay north arcade has an eastern arch of two chamfered orders on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and chamfered bases. The narrow centre arch is continuously moulded beneath a crocketed hoodmould on headstops. The four-centred western arch has two chamfered orders on chamfered responds with square capitals coved on the lower side, and later moulded capitals superimposed. The two-bay south arcade has an eastern arch of continuous rolled and filleted mouldings beneath a crocketed ogee hood. The wide western arch is double chamfered on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases. The double chamfered chancel arch—the inner order only with moulded capitals, the outer continuous—sits beneath a coved hoodmould on headstops. The flanking walls retain masonry of the original church.

Nave

The north arcade consists of three double chamfered arches beneath a continuous hoodmould on animal headstops. The eastern arches are tall and pointed, resting on a half-cylindrical respond with moulded base and scalloped capital, and cylindrical piers with square abaci—one with a scalloped capital, one with incised waterleaf. The western arch dies into the octagonal tower pier on a chamfered base, broach-stopped onto a square plinth.

The south arcade has three double chamfered arches—two pointed, one semicircular—beneath a continuous hoodmould on headstops. The half-cylindrical east respond has a moulded base and half-octagonal capital. The first pier is octagonal on a moulded base with an octagonal capital. The second pier is cylindrical with a double roll-moulded base on a square plinth and a nailhead capital. The tower pier to the west corresponds to that opposite. The south aisle arch is narrow and pointed, double chamfered, on responds with simple moulded capitals.

The clerestory on both sides has a one-light window towards the east end and another of three cinquefoiled lights over the second pier.

Tower

The tower arches have two hollow-chamfered orders dying into piers, with the south arch narrower than the north arch. The western responds are half-octagonal with chamfered bases, broach-stopped onto square plinths. To the north of the west window is a pointed chamfered doorway to the tower stair. At the west end of the north aisle, a former chapel doorway has a two-centred arch in a deep hollow-chamfered surround.

Fittings and Features

In the chancel south wall are a 19th-century piscina and restored sedilia of three stalls beneath cinquefoiled ogee-arched heads. In the north chapel (now in a staff lavatory) is a piscina in a two-centred arch with defaced cusping, and an arched tomb recess with filleted roll moulding (in a staff room). In the south chapel are an aumbry in a rebated surround and a piscina in a trefoiled ogee arch. On the east wall are two half-octagonal brackets with carved angels, each bearing a heraldic shield of arms of the Graa family. In the north aisle are three arched tomb recesses and a plain round-headed stoup without bowl. A blocked chamfered north doorway has a segmental head. In the south aisle are a rebated aumbry and a piscina in a two-centred, hollow-chamfered arch. Beside the south door is a hollow niche for a stoup without bowl, in an arched opening.

Roofs

The chancel has principal rafter trusses with moulded and embattled cambered ties on corbel heads, with pierced spandrels and panel-tracery tympana. The chancel north chapel and nave have king post trusses with moulded and embattled cambered tie beams on moulded corbels, with pierced spandrels and cusped braces.

Dedication Stone

A mutilated stone dating from around 1000, discovered during the restoration of 1870 and now attached to the east respond of the north aisle arcade, records the dedication of the church "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and of St Mary and St Martin and of St Cuthbert and of all the saints".

Monuments

In the south chapel are two wall tablets moved from the north chapel commemorating Lewis West (died 1718) and his wife Dorcas (died 1732), and Richard Coulton (died 1713), Rector, and his wife Elizabeth (died 1731). Also memorials to Elizabeth Tweedy (died 1811) and her husband John (died 1842).

In the north aisle are a tablet to William Mushet, MD (died 1792), by Fisher of York, and one to Rawlins Gould (died 1873).

In the south aisle is a memorial to William Mason (died 1708) and his wife Jane.