Church Of The Holy Trinity

NORTH YORKSHIRE RYEDALE 5340

SE 67 NE STONEGRAVE MAIN STREET (south-west side, off) 7/51 Church of the Holy Trinity 4.1.55

GV II*

Church. Nave of Saxon origins, early C12 tower, mid C12 arcade, C15 upper stage to tower, and substantial restoration and rebuilding of external walls and chancel, 1863, by G. Fowler Jones. Limestone rubble and hammer dressed rubble with ashlar facings, Westmorland slate roof. West tower, 3-bay aisled nave with south porch, 2-bay chancel with organ chamber to north. 3- stage tower. C15 2-light window in place of blocked round-headed west doorway. Small round-headed window in second stage of south face, splayed through full thickness of wall, its head being cut from a single stone. Third stage is later addition with twin square-headed transomed belfry openings to each face. Embattled parapet, the pinnacles being a Victorian addition. The tower is built over and against the west wall of the nave, thus suggesting an earlier date for the nave. The rest of the exterior of the church is entirely of 1863 in High Victorian Gothic Style. Interior: west doorway of nave is plain round-headed opening of different proportions and builds on either side of the wall, an anomaly probably caused by a thickening of the wall. The 2 western bays of the north arcade are supported on massive cylindrical piers with scalloped capitals with ornamented medallions incised into the ends of the scallops, except for west respond which has waterleaf capital. The arches are of alternate brown and white voussoirs and have hoodmoulds supported by beakheads. Later Norman, more massive arcade to south with scalloped and foliate capitals. C10 wheel cross, substantially intact, and several shaft fragments by south door. Monuments include in north aisle effigy of a civilian of early C14, legs crossed, hands in prayer, and two effigies, in low tomb recess with canopy, to Robert Thornton, died 1418, and his wife, both with hands in prayer and wearing pleated gowns. In the chancel are 2 brass memorials to members of the Comber family, of late C17 / early C18, and an inscribed slab in the floor in memory of Thomas Comber, Rector of Stonegrave and Dean of Durham, died 1699. Over the priest's door hangs a painted memorial to William Thornton, died 1668, unusual in that it is painted on canvas, not wood. Pevsner N. "Yorkshire: The North Riding" 1966. Read H. "A Short History and Description of The Church of The Holy Trinity, Stonegrave" n.d. Taylor H. M. "Anglo-Saxon Architecture" 1965.

Listing NGR: SE6557077880