Church Of St Edmund King And Martyr

Church of St Edmund King and Martyr

A parish church of mixed dates spanning the 12th century through the early 19th century, with significant work undertaken for the Hutton family in the 17th and 19th centuries. The structure is built of rubble, partly rendered at the west end, with a stone slate roof to the chancel. It comprises a three-bay nave with a north aisle, a west bellcote and south porch, and a two-bay chancel also with a north aisle.

The south porch, constructed in the mid-19th century, is faced in ashlar and features a chamfered Tudor arch with hoodmould and the Hutton coat of arms above a stepped crenellated parapet. The west return is rendered. Inside the porch, the floor displays a chamfered grave cover with large pieces of sandstone bearing black-letter inscriptions and a Jacobean finial resting upon it. Nearby stands a broken grave cover with part of a floriated cross. An early 19th-century panelled door with a wrought-iron latch sits within a 12th-century round-arched doorway of two slightly-chamfered orders, the inner one shafted with scalloped capitals and a hoodmould.

The nave elevation, viewed from the left, shows a stepped buttress, an ashlar surround to a rectangular window west of the porch, and above the porch a chamfered ashlar window formerly serving a gallery. To the right of the porch is a chamfered plinth. Two two-light windows dated 1683 follow, each with segmental-arched heads to the lights and a circle above in plate tracery. The central mullions are fluted, and moulded labels rest on cornice capitals. The western window bears the date 1683 inscribed on its plate tracery and displays a dogtooth motif to the heads of lights; the eastern window carries the inscription "IOHN HUTTON SQVIR" with a sundial above. A stepped buttress and crenellated parapet complete this section, with ashlar coping to the right and a gable cross. A tile west gable, rising higher than the present nave roof, features ashlar coping and a bellcote, with the scar of a steeply-pitched roof visible on its east side.

The west end is rendered with stepped buttresses at the ends and centre of the nave, with an offset halfway up the wall. The gabled bellcote contains twin chamfered pointed-arched bell openings, one of which retains its bell. A small lancet window opens in the west end of the north aisle. The north nave aisle is rendered and includes a blocked round-arched doorway near the west end and a two-light chamfered mullion window.

The chancel, of early 19th-century date, features a stepped ashlar buttress with quoins above on the right side, and in its centre a two-panel priest's door within a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with hoodmould. This is flanked by Tudor-arched windows of two trefoiled lights with hoodmoulds. The east window is also Tudor-arched, containing three trefoiled lights with a hoodmould.

The north chancel aisle, of 13th-century date, has an east window of two cinque-cusped lights in straight-headed openings with a hoodmould and a two-light chamfered mullion north window.

The interior features a north nave arcade of three bays with octagonal columns bearing foliage on the capitals, supporting chamfered elliptical arches. The responds are extended downwards with face stops. A 13th-century chamfered semicircular chancel arch is supported by responds that have been extended downwards as half-section 17th-century balusters. The north chancel arcade comprises two plastered elliptical arches with square abacus capitals to the pier and responds. In the north wall stands a stop-chamfered four-centred-arched tomb recess, within which is mounted the reticulated tracery of a pointed-arched window, all carved from a single piece of stone.

The font is of inverted pyramidal octagonal form with a dogtooth motif on the edges. It bears crude carving on four panels and the inscriptions "T H" and "1633", commemorating Timothy Hutton, a merchant of Leeds who married Margaret Bennet.

The roofs are ceiled. Most of the fittings date from 1830, when John Hutton restored the fabric, and are of stained pitchpine, including box pews, a Hutton family pew in the chancel, and a pulpit with reading desk. The altar table and rail, which has square-section balusters, are of late 17th-century to early 18th-century date.

The church contains several monuments. In the chancel floor is a 18th-century slab to a John Hutton. On the north side of the chancel is a monument to John Hutton of Marske, who died in 1841, carved by T Smith of London, featuring a portrait bust above a long inscription commemorating his term as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1825 and his qualities as a generous patron of learned and scientific societies, a liberal and improving landlord, a political reformist and a hospitable host. Above the north nave arcade is a monument to Rev John Fisher, who died in 1808, by W Foss dated 1821. On the south side of the chancel is a monument to Timothy Hutton of Marske and Clifton Castle, who died in 1863, by Skelton of York.

Commandment boards are displayed on the east wall. Above the north nave arcade is a royal coat of arms of Queen Victoria dated 1850. In the top light of the more westerly 17th-century nave window is a roundel of painted glass depicting a male Hutton and his wife.