Church Of St Wilfrid

SE 52 NW 4/41

MONK FRYSTON MAIN STREET (south side) Church of St Wilfrid

11.12.67 I

Church. Anglo Saxon origins with C13, C14, C15, C17, C19 and C20 additions and alterations. Magnesian limestone with stone slate and lead roof. West tower, three-bay aisled nave with south porch and remains of south aisle and vestry.

Three-stage tower: early C14 diagonal buttresses with off-sets to first stage. Two-light west window with Reticulated tracery. First stage band. Two-light round-headed bell-openings with shaft between to second stage. Two corbel tables. Third stage: two-light pointed bell openings with Reticulated tracery to each side. Battlements with pinnacles. Entrance under probable C20 south porch: a pointed arch with chamfered jambs.

Nave: C13 aisles and C14 clerestorey. Aisles have buttresses with off-sets. North aisle has pointed doorway in chamfered surround. Three-light, straight-headed window with panel tracery to east end of north aisle, partly recut. Embattled north aisle.

Chancel: angle buttresses with off-sets. South aisle: two-light window with Y-tracery, otherwise occupied by C19 vestry; east end has re-inserted three-light, straight-headed Perpendicular window. North aisle: plinth; two-light window with Y-tracery; two-light window with Reticulated tracery. In gable a C19 niche for statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Interior: double-chamfered pointed tower arch. Nave has C13 arcades with circular piers, broadly moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. The responds are keeled, some recut. Trefoil-headed piscina to south aisle. C13 double-chamfered chancel arch with squints to either side. Chancel has two-narrow-bay arcade to south and a two-light window with Reticulated tracery. Two C17 wall tablets. Cast-iron plaque restoration of choir by Thomas Edmunds in 1685. Font is probably C13: square on plan, each side with a flatly carved cross in a circle and above that an arch-head with a fleur-de-lys; wooden cover dated 1669 and suspended from decorated wrought-iron chain. Communion rail dated 1664. Stained glass: some medieval fragments in north and south aisle west windows, otherwise by Kempe, 1891.

Pevsner, N, Yorkshire, The West Riding, 1979, pp371-2.

Listing NGR: SE5052129745