Church Of St Cuthbert

Church of St Cuthbert, Peasholme Green, York

A parish church now used as offices for the Church of St Michael-le-Belfrey in Minster Yard. The building dates from the mid-15th century but incorporates a late 11th-century east wall. A 19th-century vestry and porch were added, and the church was restored in 1911–12 by C Hodgson Fowler, with conversion to offices around 1980.

The church is constructed of magnesian limestone ashlar on a moulded double plinth. The east end features a rubble wall with gritstone quoins on a narrow plinth. Roofs are tiled and covered with stone slate, finished with moulded stone coping. The vestry is built of pink-grey brick in English garden-wall bond with a limestone south wall and pantile pent roof.

The plan comprises a continuous 2-bay chancel and 3-bay nave with a south porch, a west tower, and a north-west vestry. A former charnel vault has been converted to a crypt.

The east end displays a roughly buttressed 11th-century wall with a blocked doorway beneath a crudely shaped lintel and segmental relieving arch. To the north is a hollow-chamfered window of three cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery in a 2-centred head, above a small square opening in a chamfered surround to the former charnel vault. The north side has 2-stage buttresses at the north-west angle and between windows. Towards the west end is a chamfered doorway in a 2-centred arch with a 19th-century door; further east are two square-headed windows of two cinquefoiled lights in hollow-chamfered surrounds.

On the south side, a gabled porch contains a reset 2-leaf door of cinquefoiled panels with perpendicular tracery in a 2-centred head. Towards the east end is a priest's door of two cinquefoiled panels in a 4-centred head with oak and vine carved spandrels set in a chamfered surround beneath a coved hoodmould. Four windows of three cinquefoiled lights occupy square-headed hollow-chamfered surrounds beneath hoodmoulds, separated by 3-stage buttresses topped with decayed gargoyles. Beneath the easternmost window is a square-headed 2-light window with a chamfered mullion, serving the former charnel vault. A coved eaves string runs beneath a plain parapet with moulded coping.

The west end features a 2-stage tower with a south-west angle buttress, with the vestry projecting to the north. The west window has three cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery in a 4-centred head, beneath a coved hoodmould, and above it is a small trefoiled light. Belfry openings to each face are square-headed with 2 louvred lights beneath hoodmoulds on weathered headstops. Moulded strings mark the belfry and sit beneath an embattled parapet, with defaced gargoyles to both.

Interior features include tower and south door arches with double chamfers in 2-centred form. There is a small square recess in the chancel north wall. East of the south door, an octagonal stoup has been reset in a broach-stopped chamfered recess with an ogee-arched head. A coffin lid with an incised cross shaft is set in the tower west wall.

Fittings include a hexagonal pulpit with arcaded panels carved with foliage; a communion table with column legs and fluted rail; Paternoster, Commandment and Creed boards in round-headed moulded surrounds; a Lord Mayors' board with a Queen Anne cypher; two painted boards flanking the tower arch said to represent Moses and Aaron, though the inscriptions are undecipherable; and three lozenge hatchments.

Monuments include work on the west wall by Bennet Snr. of York commemorating Richard Lund, his wife Sarah, and other family members who died between 1813 and 1826. On the north wall is a monument by William Stead of York to Thomas Kilby and his wife, who died in 1792 and 1793. The south wall carries a cartouche to Charles Mitley, carver (died 1758), Mary Mitley (died 1773), Ann, wife of Samuel Simpson (died 1836), and Elizabeth Simpson (died 1836), by Skelton. The crypt contains an early 17th-century slab with brasses to members of the Hungate family.