Tower of Thornton Church is a Grade II listed building in the North Yorkshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 March 1986. Church tower.
Tower of Thornton Church
- WRENN ID
- night-keystone-dust
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- North Yorkshire
- Constituency
- Skipton and Ripon MP: Sir Julian Smith (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 March 1986
- Type
- Church tower
- Address
- Tower of Thornton Church, Ripley Road, Bishop Thornton, Shaw Mills and Warsill
- OS grid reference
- SE 261 642
- Coordinates
- 54.07355, -1.60199
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Tower of Thornton Church is a Roman Catholic church tower dating from the 18th century. It is constructed from coursed squared gritstone and ashlar, featuring three stages with offset diagonal buttresses. The tower has single-light windows on the first and second stages, and paired lights on the belfry stage, all adorned with pointed hoodmoulds. It includes an eaves cornice and a battlemented parapet.
The first parochial chapel on this site was built around 1460 by John Walworth, who was the Forester to the Archbishop of York and lived at Raventoft Hall. Following the split between the Anglican and Catholic churches, Raventofts became a significant center of Catholicism in the area, with the priest of Thornton church residing at the hall. By 1720, the church was in poor condition and was likely replaced around 1790 by a presbytery built in Bishop Thornton village, which included a chapel in the attic. A new Catholic church was constructed next to the presbytery in 1809, while the Anglican church was built in 1888.
Local climate
Tower of Thornton Church receives an average of 860 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 59% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 46 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 87% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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