† SITE HOME † GUIDE HOME PAGE† An Introduction † Bells † Chancel † Church Wardens Accounts † Crypt † Font † History † Holy Trinity Chapel † Monuments † The Nave † The Organ † Misericords † Parish Hall † Parish Registers † Priest's Rooms † South Choir Aisle † South Porch † St Michael's Chapel † Transepts † Vicars † War Memorial Door † Acknowledgements†

Founded in 1120, the Church of St Mary in Beverley is said to owe its origin to Thurstan, Archbishop of York, 1114-1143, who had been Provost of Beverley Minster. It was he who gathered the levies of the North with the banners of St Peter of York, St John of Beverley, and St Wilfrid of Ripon for the Battle of the Standard in 1138. St Mary's was at first a chapel of ease attached to the altar of St Martin in Beverley Minster, but was constituted a Vicarage in 1269.

Many of the Craft Guilds of the town adopted St Mary's from the first, and during the Middle Ages it was regarded as the Parish Church of the town.

The original Norman Church was planned on a large scale, and was probably aisleless with a central Tower. The plinths of the external buttresses of this Church may be seen in the Chancel. The only other visible remains are the interior arch of the doorway to the South Porch, and the zigzag ornament over the arcade in the North Transept. This Transept was added towards the close of the twelfth century, and early in the thirteenth century a corresponding aisled transept was built on the south side.

In the second quarter of the thirteenth century, the Nave was rebuilt with aisles, and the Chancel was extended to its present length.

Towards the close of the thirteenth century the crypt was built, and over it the Chapel of the Holy Trinity (now the choir vestry).

The south arcade of the Chancel was built not later than 1310: the north arcade about thirty years later.

The Chapel of St Michael, its adjoining Sacristy, and the Priest's rooms above date from the second quarter of the fourteenth century. The Black Death in 1349 put an end to further building for some years.

From 1380 to 1411, the West Front of the Church was raised to its present height; the Nave arcades were rebuilt with clerestories above. The addition of the South Porch completed the ground plan as it still remains.

There followed the building of the Chancel clerestories and the completion of the east end of the Chancel. The painted roof gives the date of this work as 1445. The oak choir stalls in the Chancel, with their carved Misericords, belong to this period. The building of clerestories to the North and South Transepts, which probably involved the resetting of the arches of the transept arcades on new piers, is dated by wills of 1451 and 1453.

In 1477, Robert Fisher, merchant of Beverley, was buried in the Church of St Mary before the Crucifix. He was the father of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was beheaded on 22nd June 1535, in his 78th year as a martyr for his Catholic principles.

The west ends of the aisles of the Nave were rebuilt towards the close of the fifteenth century.

The central Tower was probably raised at this time to a height too great for its piers to bear, for on Sunday 29th April 1520, probably at the time that a service was taking place, the upper part of the Tower gave way and fell on the Nave, killing men, women and children. The necessary reconstruction of the Nave arcade and of the central Tower was completed within just four years.

In the first year of Edward VI, 1549, the revenues of St Mary's were alienated to the Crown, but the Church was re-endowed in 1585 for the repair of the fabric and maintenance of the services of the Church. This estate is still administered by the four Churchwardens as Trustees.

During the Civil War, the Church suffered from the violence and spoliation of both Royalists and Puritans. All the medieval stained glass perished, and of the 25 brasses, only the matrices remain to remind us of the figures and canopies which once adorned these tomb slabs. At this time the Vicar, Nicholas Osgodby, was either expelled or made a voluntary withdrawal, and his place was taken by a Puritan minister, Joseph Wilson. Joseph's successor, Samuel Ferris, was ejected in 1662 and Nicholas Osgodby re-instated.

During the eighteenth century, worship in the Chancel of St Mary's appears to have been abandoned. North and south galleries were erected in the nave, where high pews faced eastward and westward to a 'three-decker' pulpit in the central aisle.

Between 1844 and 1876, a complete restoration of the Church was carried out under the successive superintendence of Augustus Welby Pugin, his son E Welby Pugin, and Sir Gilbert Scott. About 1853, the flying buttresses, which harmonise so well with the main building, were built to support the South Transept, and the original tracery of the large South Transept window was replaced in the present decorated style from the designs of the younger Pugin. The designing of the weather vane on the south-west Lantern Tower is said to have been the last work of this gifted architect before madness overtook him. The Nave was furnished with the present oak pews in 1864. The restoration of the Chancel stalls and screen was carried out in the following year by Sir Gilbert Scott, who also designed the pulpit.

The western side of the rood screen was restored under the supervision of John Bilson in 1893. Some remaining fragments of screenwork stand against the east wall of the Chancel, and another fragment is incorporated into the screen on the south side of St Michael's Chapel.