Parish Church Of St Robert Of Knaresborough

PARISH CHURCH OF ST ROBERT OF KNARESBOROUGH, PANNAL

This medieval parish church stands on the east side of Main Street, Pannal. It comprises a nave, lower and narrower chancel, and a west tower, with 20th-century parish rooms on the south side of the nave.

The church displays building work from several periods. The chancel dates to the 14th century, the tower to the 15th or 16th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1772, substantially remodelled in 1929, with further extensions added in 1955 and 1977. The building is constructed of dressed and coursed sandstone with graded-slate roofs.

The tower is Perpendicular in style, with three stages, diagonal buttresses, and an embattled parapet. The west doorway in the lower stage has a segmental-pointed arch with broad chamfer and a ribbed door. Above it is a three-light window. The second stage contains small square-headed windows beneath round clock faces; the bell stage has square-headed two-light openings with uncusped round-headed lights. The four-bay nave retains rusticated quoins and the rusticated surround of a former blind north doorway—the only remaining indication of its Georgian origin. The windows are two-light Perpendicular examples of 1929, with the south-east window shortened to accommodate the modern chapter house. The 14th-century Decorated chancel has a three-light east window with reticulated tracery, one north window, two south two-light windows, and an ogee-headed south priests' doorway. A long low double-depth hall extends south from the nave, built in materials matching the main church. A glazed polygonal room, known as the chapter house, is set on its east side.

Internally, the nave shows 1929 work throughout, including the tower arch and chancel arch, both carried on polygonal shafts. The nave has a tie-beam roof on corbelled brackets with cusped arcading over the beams. The chancel roof, with a four-and-a-half-bay arched-brace structure, probably dates to the restoration of 1884. The chancel contains a low-set 14th-century ogee-headed piscina, which demonstrates that the chancel floor has been significantly raised. Two re-set corbels in the sanctuary walls may have been associated with a Lenten veil. The nave walls are plastered and the chancel has scribed render walls. Stone-paved flooring in the chancel includes 17th and 19th-century ledgers, while the sanctuary floor features early 20th-century mosaic memorials beneath which lies a crypt.

Among the principal fixtures is a font, probably dating to 1772, of polished marble in an unusual oval shape, with a wooden canopy topped by a finial surmounted by a dove. A 19th-century polygonal Perpendicular pulpit is carved with a figure of the Good Shepherd. The pews are mainly 19th century with notional poppy-head ends. Choir stalls have scrolled foliage at their tops and Gothic blind-panelled frontals. The 19th-century altar table incorporates 17th-century panels. The east window, depicting the Nativity, dates to 1883. The church contains 19th and 20th-century memorial tablets, including a memorial to the Symeson/Simpson family erected following the death of William Simpson in 1886, executed by Day of Knaresborough.

The church is documented as medieval in origin and is said to have been damaged by a Scottish raiding party in 1318. The chancel is 14th century and the tower dates to the 15th or 16th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1772 and underwent restoration in 1882–1884. In 1929, the Georgian windows were replaced with Perpendicular windows and the nave ceiling was replaced. A church hall was added in 1955 and a further room (the chapter house) in 1977, these later additions being of lesser architectural interest.