Church Of Saint Anne

Church of Saint Anne

This is a church built in 1412 by Richard de Crakehall, master mason, commissioned by Katherine de Burgh and her son William. It underwent alterations in the later 15th century and again in the 19th century. The building is constructed in coursed sandstone with a Westmorland slate roof and is designed in the Perpendicular style.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with aisles and a south porch, a three-bay chancel with side chapels, and a north vestry with a heating chamber below. Windows throughout feature straight-sided pointed arches with hollow-chamfered surrounds.

The west tower rises in three stages, with a stair turret containing light vents in its south-east corner. The tower has a three-light west window, light vents to the west and south sides of the ringing chamber which contains a clock, two-light belfry openings, and a crenellated parapet with corner finials.

The south porch features a continuously-moulded pointed-arched doorway with coats of arms of the Aske, de Burgh and Lascelles families. A sundial is set in the gable, and the porch contains stone benches inside and a small stoup. The inner doorway has a continuously-moulded pointed arch with a label bearing weathered heads.

The south aisle is divided into bays by shallow stepped buttresses. It has two-light windows with cinque-cusping and labels, and a blind parapet. A clerestory with paired quatrefoils was added in the 19th century. The north aisle contains a small north doorway with an ovolo on the chamfer and label, one 19th-century window and one original window. Both aisles have a cinque-cusped square-headed single-light window at their west ends.

In the chancel, the south aisle features a continuously-moulded pointed-arched priests' doorway with label, two-light windows, and a three-light east window. The chancel east window has five lights under a label with head stops. Above this is a 19th-century oculus with three lights. The north chapel, dating to the later 15th century, has two three-light square-headed north windows.

The interior contains arcades with octagonal columns on square chamfered broached bases with Perpendicular capitals and two orders of arches, the outer one hollow-chamfered and the inner one chamfered. The chancel arch matches this design. There is a two-order arch from the chancel to the south chapel, one being chamfered, and a three-order chamfered arch from the chancel to the north chapel. The tower arch is straight-sided without responds and consists of three chamfered orders with the innermost one hollow. The ringing chamber is vaulted.

A piscina is located in the south aisle, and two ogee niches are in the north aisle. The chancel contains three-seat sedilia with ogee canopies, crockets and finials. The vestry doorway is a pointed arch with an ovolo on the arris and a label.

The chancel contains wall monuments to Reverend Michael Syddal, Vicar of Catterick who died in 1658 and founded the village school and almshouse; Charles Anthony, 1600-85; and Richard Braithwaite, court poet to James I, who died in 1673. A floor slab in the sanctuary commemorates Roger Croft, who died in 1684. The north chapel, built as a chantry of Saint James, contains wall brasses to its founder William de Burgh, who died in 1492, and his wife Elizabeth, as well as floor brasses to William de Burgh, the builder of the church, who died in 1442, and his son William, who died in 1462. A 15th-century seven-light wooden screen is also present in the chancel. The south chapel contains a floor slab to Alice, who died in 1659 and was the wife of Christopher Wandesford, Lord Deputy of Ireland.

In the nave, the south aisle contains a reset effigy of Sir Walter Urswick, Constable of Richmond Castle in 1371, in a segmental-arched moulded canopy, and a 15th-century wooden screen of six trefoiled lights. The north aisle displays wall monuments to the de Burgh family and their successors the Lawson family, as well as Lawson family hatchments.

A black marble octagonal font, bearing the monogram of the founder William de Burgh and the arms of the de Burgh, D'Arcy, Fitzhugh, Scrope and Neville families, is inscribed on the stem with "CLAR FON" (clear fountain). A parish chest is positioned at the west end. A royal coat of arms dated 1769 hangs over the tower arch.