Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Lastingham

Church. Founded in 1078 as the church of a Benedictine monastery by Stephen of Whitby. The monastery had originally been founded by St Cedd in 654 but was subsequently destroyed by invading Danes. When Stephen of Whitby refounded the monastery in 1078, he began building the abbey church, substantial portions of which were standing when the site was abandoned around 1085. The church remained incomplete until around 1228, when the unfinished fabric of the original church was adapted and incorporated into a new parochial church for the village of Lastingham.

The crypt, chancel and apse date from 1078-85. The early 13th-century west wall and nave arcades incorporate crossing piers from the originally-planned cruciform church with crossing tower and transepts. The tower dates from the 14th century. The porch is largely of 1879. Restoration work was undertaken in 1828 by John Jackson, and clerestory and vault work of 1879 by J L Pearson.

The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone, raised in dressed sandstone with sandstone ashlar dressings. It has lead roofs with a stone flagged tower roof. The plan comprises a west tower, an aisled nave with clerestory of two double bays on either side of the original crossing piers, a south porch, chancel and apse.

The two-stage tower stands on a double chamfered plinth with diagonal offset buttresses and is embattled. The lower stage contains a west window of two trefoil-headed lights beneath panel tracery in a square-headed surround. The bell stage has paired louvred lights with trefoil heads beneath flat hoodmoulds. Moulded string courses separate the stages and sit beneath the parapet. The roof is saddleback form.

In the nave west wall on either side of the tower are triple responds with cushion capitals incorporated from the original church. The west end of the south aisle has a window of paired foiled lights beneath a flat hoodmould with floral stops. The south side features a gabled porch with dwarf diagonal offset buttresses and a round-arched opening on slim shafts beneath a crocketed hoodmould. The chamfered south doorway has plain imposts, chamfered on the lower side. On the porch west return is an oval sandstone plaque by J Flintoft commemorating restoration by J Jackson in 1838-39. To the east of the porch are two windows of paired cusped lights with mouchettes above, in square-headed chamfered surrounds, separated by a dwarf offset buttress. Faint remains of a mass clock are visible on the buttress. A single light with quatrefoil tracery stands further to the east. The east end of the aisle has a pointed window of three trefoil-headed lights beneath curvilinear tracery and corbel-stopped hoodmould. The aisle has an embattled parapet. The clerestory has 19th-century lancets beneath rolled hoodmoulds on headstops, on either side of a gabled buttress, with a corbel table and plain parapet.

The north side has five offset buttresses, the easternmost adapted to a chimney stack. A two-centred chamfered doorway stands to the west. To the east are two windows of paired foiled lights in square-headed surrounds, the easternmost with a flat hoodmould retaining one head-stop. The east end of the aisle has a single round-headed chamfered window and a plain coped parapet. The clerestory repeats the details of the south side.

On the chancel, both sides have round-arched niches with plain imposts at crypt level. Round-headed windows in quoined openings further to the west have an arched motif sill band on the south side and a plait motif to the north. The corbel table has been restored with carvings of masks, fleurons, dogtooth and other mouldings. The west end contains a three-bay apse with stepped-back round-arched windows separated by full-height pilaster buttresses. The centre bay contains a trefoil-headed window at crypt level. The apse windows have a billet-moulded sill band, with a corbel table continuing from the chancel. The roof is half-conical. Gables and gable crosses, with coped finishes, surmount the porch, nave and chancel.

Interior

The crypt is a three-bay aisled nave with chancel and apse. The nave has round-arched groin-vaults springing from four squat cylindrical columns on square stepped bases. The columns have plain imposts, chamfered on the lower side, and varied capitals: one has a plain cushion capital, three have volutes, and two have bands of moulding—one with interlaced arcading and one with a form of upright leaf. The round chancel arch springs from half cylindrical responds with voluted cushion capitals and plain imposts. The apse arch is unmoulded and springs from the ground. A single rounded light in deep splay illuminates the east end, with similar small lights to the east end of each aisle.

The crypt contains important Anglo-Saxon and medieval sculpture. Two carved cross heads survive, one of late 8th or early 9th century, the other of early 9th century. Two pieces of carved doorway, dated to the 8th or 9th century, include one with a stylised grape and scroll motif. A 10th-century cross shaft is carved with interlace and key motifs. A 10th-century hogback gravestone is carved with a bear. An 11th-century cross shaft bears key carvings. A medieval moorland cross known as Ain Howe Cross, which was later replaced by the Ana Cross standing on Spaunton Moor close to the Lastingham-Spaunton parish boundary, is also recorded.

The nave is terminated to the west by a tall, narrow tower arch of two chamfered orders springing from quoined jambs. North and south arcades of two bays have double-chamfered pointed arches on keeled quatrefoil piers with plain capitals. The west responds form the inner parts of the piers for the original crossing tower, the outer parts of which are visible in the exterior of the west wall. The base of the south-west respond has faintly-visible plait moulding. Similar piers with voluted cushion capitals form the intermediate piers to the arcades. The impost to the east face of the south-east pier retains traces of interlace, plait and foliate moulding. A tall round arch of two orders springs from these piers. Two further similar bays of arcading to the east of the intermediate piers are now blocked by the vestry to the north and the organ chamber to the south. A round chancel arch of two orders, the inner order springing from half cylindrical responds with voluted cushion capitals, separates the nave from the chancel. The chancel and apse are separated by a tall round arch of two orders, the outer roll-moulded. Round-headed single lights, stepped back and flanked by nook-shafts with voluted cushion capitals and impost band, light the apse. Moulded capitals to the arch piers continue to form a cornice to the apse. The nave, choir and chancel have groin-vaulted roofs, whilst the apse has a semi-hemispherical roof.

The west end of the north aisle contains a painting of 'The Agony in the Garden', after Correggio, by John Jackson, RA, who was born in Lastingham in 1778. Monuments include two wall tablets by Bennet and Flintoft in the north aisle, to members of the Shepherd family of Douthwaite, dated respectively around 1820 and around 1827. A wall monument by J Flintoft to John Jackson, RA, who died in 1831, stands in the south aisle. Behind the south-east pier is a beautifully carved Calvary, which was captured from a Spanish warship, the 'Salvador del Mundi', and subsequently donated to the church.