A Tour of St Wilfrid's Church

Norman Font

The font is a stone tub in which people are baptized on entry to membership of the church. It is generally placed near the entrance to show that Baptism is the gate by which we enter Christ's fold. Children and adults have been baptized into Christ’s Church in this font from about 1150.

The earliest recorded baptism at Burnsall was of Elizabeth daughter of Henrye Morebye on the 14th June 1559.

If you look carefully, you will see that there are eight animals around the bottom, set tail to tail. These have recently been identified as lions and may represent Christian believers. The creatures in the upper part have been variously identified as fishes, or winged snakes or serpents. The snake shedding its skin could be a metaphor for the resurrection to new life after death. The snakes and the lions may be meant as pictures of the blessed in heaven, which is the goal of the baptised.

The font is described in detail in ‘Early Sculptures in Burnsall Church’ by Elizabeth Coatsworth, Rita Wood and Lawrence Butler - which can be purchased in the church.

Nave

The main part of the church where the worshippers gather for services. From Latin navis 'ship' because it often resembles the structure of an upturned boat.

Aisles

The north and south aisles on either side of the nave were later additions parallel to the nave to accommodate more worshippers, provide space for extra altars and a route for processions.

Chancel or Choir

This is the place where the seats are arranged laterally i.e. facing each other. In former time the choir sang the psalms antiphonally i.e. from side to side. This is an ancient tradition reputed to have been instituted by St Polycarp a disciple of St John who saw in a vision the choirs of heaven chanting the praises of God in this way.

The Choir was separated off from the nave to signify the church triumphant in heaven.

On the ends of the beams on the north side are the coats of arms of the various lords of the manors of Appletreewick, Burnsall, Hartlington & Thorpe.

The Royal Coat of Arms over the Chancel arch are those of King Edward VII (1901–10)
This was painted in 1902 by Sir Matthew Wilson Bt. of Eshton Hall when he was 75 years old. He was co-lord of one of the manors in the parish and also member of parliament for the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Sanctuary

This is the holiest part of the church in which is placed the Altar or Lord's Table which is used for the highest act of Divine Worship, the Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist. It is placed at the east end as a token that Christ is the true Sun of Righteousness. It has long been a custom for Christians to worship towards the point where the sun rises.

The altar table is 17th century and replaced the stone altar slab which was removed at the reformation. During the 1858 restoration, the pre-reformation stone altar slab was found under the floor by workmen. Unfortunately, in the absence of the architect, it was broken up.

The east window is in memory of Henry and Harriet Dawson.

The Lady Chapel

This is named after Mary the mother of Jesus. It is also known as the Romillé Chapel after the Norman family who became Lords of the Manor of Burnsall after the Norman Conquest.

The stonework of the east window dates from about 1300. The Victorian stained glass windows show Christ crucified in the left panel and the risen Christ in the right.

The chapel was refurbished from 1953 to commemorate local men who fell in two World Wars and also ‘those who loved this Church and worshipped in it.’ The Altar Table is Elizabethan. A book in this chapel contains the details of those who gave their lives. The table on which the book rests was made from a desk used by the boys of Burnsall Grammar School which is situated next to the church.

On the side of the window to the right of the Altar built into the masonry is a cross-shaped carving, the remains of a medieval knight’s tomb cover.

St Wilfrid's Chapel

At the east end of the north aisle (behind the organ) is St Wilfrid’s Chapel.
This is dedicated to Wilfrid, the patron saint of this church. The east window depicts St Wilfrid as a youth with his patron Queen Enfleda at the monastery at Lindisfarne on the left and later on the right as Bishop of York in 669 wearing his mitre.

There is some evidence that this chapel was once the Metcalfe Chantry. When Roger Dodsworth, the great Yorkshire antiquary visited Burnsall in 1612 there was still a fragment of an inscription in the north window as follows, ‘Orate pro Jacobi Metcalf, armigeri qui hanc fenestram….’ (Pray for the soul of James Metcalf, Esq., who this window….’ This James Metcalf was from Nappa in Wensleydale, Lord of the Manor of Hartlington, and other Yorkshire manors, High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1525. He died on 20 September 1539.

Alongside the window is an alabaster panel which depicts the adoration of the magi. Mary is seated on a tester bed holding the infant Jesus on her knee. Joseph is kneeling in the bottom right. The three kings are on the left presenting gifts. Behind the kings are the head and wings of an angel.

This panel dates from the fifteenth century and was probably made in the Newton workshops at York. It escaped the destruction caused by Edward VI’s statute against religious images. The panel was hidden under the floor of this chapel in about 1550, in the time of Rector George Ellyson, to be unearthed by workmen during the restoration of 1858.

Tower

The tower was added to the church in the early years of the sixteenth century. One theory is that it was built by the same masons who had worked at Bolton Priory before its dissolution in 1539. There are Z shaped mason’s marks cut into the stone at various places. Similar marks can be seen at Bolton Priory. One of these marks can be seen at Burnsall at the base of the column as you enter the church.

The tower houses six bells that summon worshippers to church. Historically, bells were also rung at certain times during the service (e.g. at the consecration of the bread and wine during the Eucharist) and twice every day at 6.00 am (Prime) and at 6.00 pm (Curfew) when the faithful would say the Angelus prayer. Towers were never meant to be places of refuge from attack as is often believed.

Records show that there were three bells in 1704. In 1798 these were replaced by six bells made by Dalton of York.

Parish Chest

This historic chest was used to keep vestments, service books and from Tudor times registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and records relating to civil administration such as churchwarden’s accounts, charity accounts, tithe records, land deeds, poor law records and records relating to highway maintenance.

 

Seventeenth Century Pulpit

The word of God has been proclaimed from this pulpit from about 1612.

During the restoration of the church in 1858 the pulpit was replaced by an inferior one and the original was taken away for use in a private home as an armchair.

It was returned to the church and restored by Richard Clark of Burnsall early in the twentieth century (pre 1913). The base is to some extent copied form a pulpit in the Chapel of Wadham College, Oxford

Rood Screen

This screen, made by James Clark of Burnsall separates the nave (or body of the church) from the chancel. The name, ‘rood’ comes from the Old English ród for cross.
The screen was erected in 1891 to replace the one destroyed in c.1550. The top of the screen is a copy of that in High Hall at Appletreewick (once the home of Lord Craven). The lower panels are based on those at St John’s Church in Briggate, Leeds. The four shields (left to right: represent the Diocese of Ripon, the Craven family, Stavert family and Diocese of York). The three wooden mullions were added in 1909.

The carved figures of the crucifixion illustrate that it is by the Passion and Death of Christ that we gain entrance to eternal life. The figures of Christ on the cross, the Virgin and St John were carved in Italy to designs by Sir William Milner and added in 1935 in memory of the Reverend Canon W J Stavert who was Rector of Burnsall from 1888 – 1929.

At the opposite side to the pulpit is the lectern or reading desk from which readings from Holy Scripture (The Bible) are read during church services. This is a copy of one in the Duke of Rutland’s chapel at Haddon Hall at Bakewell in Derbyshire.