Church Of St Saviour And Attached Gates And Railings

Church of St Saviour and Attached Gates and Railings, York

This parish church, now an educational resource centre, stands on St Saviourgate in York. Formerly known as the Church of St Saviour-in-the-Marshes, it was made redundant in 1954 and converted to its present use in 1991. The church is accompanied by attached railings and gates that form the northern and western boundaries of the former churchyard.

The main structure dates principally to the 15th century, with significant 19th-century alterations. The north and south aisles were rebuilt in 1844-45, and a vestry was added in 1878. The 19th-century rebuilding was carried out by R.H. Sharp, with the vestry designed by W.G. Penty.

The church is constructed of magnesian limestone with a re-used gritstone plinth on the north side, and has tiled roofs. The plan comprises an aisled chancel of two bays continuous with a three-bay nave, a south vestry, and a west tower.

The exterior features a triple-gabled east end with a partly blocked chancel window containing five cinquefoil-headed lights and three tiers of panel tracery within a double chamfered opening. The aisle windows are of three trefoil-headed lights with reticulated tracery, all with two-centred heads and hollow chamfered hoods. A round-arched doorway with a 20th-century board door is positioned to the north of the chancel window.

On the north side, a moulded and hollow chamfered doorway in the western bay features double doors of trefoiled panels beneath a coved hoodmould on defaced shield stops, with a square-headed window of two trefoiled lights above. Both north and south sides display two-stage buttresses between pointed windows of three double transomed and trefoiled lights with panel tracery and hollow chamfered hoodmoulds. Both sides also have moulded eaves courses.

The south side includes a gabled projecting vestry in the western bay with a two-centred doorway and a square-headed window of two trefoiled lights. The west tower is three stages and buttressed, featuring a double transomed west window of three cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery beneath a coved hoodmould. The second stage has a two-light panel-traceried window deeply recessed in a four-centred opening on the west face. The belfry openings consist of three louvred lights in four-centred heads. A shallow extruded staircase on the south face is lit by glazed slit lights. Coved strings rise to the belfry, which is topped by an embattled parapet. The gabled aisles feature panel-traceried windows of three trefoiled lights, with that in the north aisle positioned above a square-headed window of three trefoiled lights.

The interior contains north and south arcades of five pointed double chamfered and broach-stopped arches supported on octagonal piers and responds with moulded bases and capitals. The tower arch comprises two hollow chamfered orders with a hoodmould that dies into semi-octagonal responds. To the north of the east window is a former vestry door with a chamfered two-centred rere-arch, while to the south is a piscina recess with a trefoiled ogee-arched canopy. The tower stair features a chamfered doorway with a four-centred head and plank door, with the second-stage floor carried on reset 12th-century grotesque corbels. Two illegible plank boards in the tower are set in ogee-headed surrounds with crocketed finials and fluted sills. The chancel and nave are said to retain 15th-century roofs above 19th-century ceilings.

The subsidiary features comprise diagonally set square-section railings and standards with fig-shaped and spike finials respectively, together with two pedestrian gates of similar design. The railings were listed on 24 June 1983.