Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church dating from 1843, designed by R H Sharp for Andrew Lawson of Aldborough Manor. It was built in a neo-Norman style. The church is constructed from coursed squared limestone with a red tile roof. It comprises a three-bay nave, a very shallow chancel, a west bellcote, and a north-east vestry. A large plank door with a ring handle is set within a two-order round doorway, featuring columns with cushion capitals. There are three large raking buttresses on the south wall and two on the north wall. Round-arched windows, with roll mouldings, are present throughout, with narrower windows in the chancel. The west window is flanked by colonnettes. The bellcote has a pitched roof and contains a single bell. Massive stone copings define the gables.

Inside, the barrel-vaulted ashlar roof rises directly from the side walls. The shallow sanctuary is reached by five black and white marble steps and is defined by a thick semicircular roll-moulding on nook-shafts with cushion capitals. Much reused 16th and 17th century black oak is incorporated, including an octagonal pulpit and a reading desk with geometric panels and balusters. Three carved panels in the squire’s pew on the south side are dated 1619. Linen-fold panelling is found on the east wall and between the nave and the vestry. The vestry doorway is ogee-headed with traceried carved detailing. The vestry contains further early woodwork, including carved friezes in relief depicting biblical scenes such as the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt, David and Goliath, and Salome. Other carvings include heads of putti, swags, and classical capitals. The vestry corner fireplace has a round arch with carved voussoirs depicting faces and animals. Late 19th-century brass wall plaques commemorate the Lawson family. The east window, showing the Virgin and Child with a Latin inscription by Barnett of York, had recently been removed for conservation. Original raking pews previously built against the north, south and west walls, surrounding a set of benches in the middle, were also removed. The church is now maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund and undergoing restoration. The Jacobean pulpit is from Holy Trinity Hull; the 15th-century vestry door and the marble sanctuary steps are from York Minster following the 1829 fire. The church is considered a remarkable example of the neo-Norman style, particularly for its use of the barrel vault. R H Sharpe also rebuilt the street frontage of Aldborough Manor for the Lawson family.