Church Crawling in York

Beauty and Destruction

Much of my church crawling is done by car; many of the most historic churches are in the rural backwaters. The reason they often survive there is lack of interest and money for rebuilding them. Many of our more urban churches have been more subject to the vagaries of fashion, especially since the industrial period commenced. Rich men with cash to spare remade many churches in what they determined was an appropriate shape, or rebuilt crumbling ancient churches in a way that wouldn’t be permitted now. The 19th century Victorian period amplified this process, with many destructive acts perpetrated on ancient churches under the guise of “restoration”.

St Christopher at Holy Trinity Goodramgate (15th century). Photographing stained glass is tricky as you are generally looking up at it so they are often on an angle, like this one. Sorry. Note the Gandalf-like staff; did Tolkien take his inspiration from images of St Christopher?

So it’s a rare place where you can spend a whole day church crawling on foot. York is one of the few places in the country where this is possible. In fact, there are so many churches in York you can’t throw a stone without hitting one.

Take this one; St John Micklegate, just down the road from my hotel. Originally late 12th century, these days it has a solid 15th/16th century exterior (though a bit shortened on the east end from its original size) and a 17th century brick tower. It’s now a bar; there are too many churches in York for a modern heathen population so many have been converted to other uses or even demolished.

I’m not going to cover all the churches in York city centre; I’ve already covered All Saints North Street in three parts and York Minster is so well known. I’ve visited the Oratory before (the Catholic church) so this visit was all about the churches I hadn’t seen before, mainly because they are normally closed. Once a year there is an event called “York Unlocked” where many places open for only two days.

This trip was physically hard, but fruitful and, as you will see, a little disturbing for me. I’m still puzzling that last one out; I hope I may have come to a conclusion by the end of this post.