TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY – 600 years and still counting
I’ll always remember my first encounter with All Saints’ Church, Bolton Percy. It was within days of my moving into the village and it has held me in its thrall ever since. I had decided to take a stroll around the village with my two young daughters to explore what was to be our new home. The north west corner of the village contained a cluster of properties that held an immediate charm. As we emerged from Pump Alley our eyes took in the edifice of All Saints with its lych gate in the foreground; the churchyard was flanked to the south west by a timber framed Tudor gatehouse. I didn’t know what a gatehouse was at the time but it looked mightily impressive even then in spite (or because) of its dilapidated state.
But All Saints dominated the scene. After we stepped through the lych gate, with its carved timber sentinel and its memorial to Samuel Smith, we didn’t appreciate we were walking past a sun dial that dated from Saxon times.
We pushed against the timber entrance door with its tracery of woodworm holes. To our surprise it was unlocked; the church was open and inviting. So we entered, a little gingerly at first, feeling like trespassers. We walked up and down the aisles; me, noseying around old inscriptions and memorials; the girls playing tig and opening and closing the doors to the Jacobean pews.
If you’re like me, when you’re on holiday in the Mediterranean and you see some medieval church you have to go inside and marvel at its architecture and artefacts and yet here, in our very midst, is something that more than compares with anything you might encounter abroad. The danger is that you take it for granted and that, to quote Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
We came to rest at the chancel step and sat there, with the altar behind us, looking down the nave. It was late afternoon, or possibly early evening, the sun was angling through the windows of the south aisle, with wisps of dust suspended in the sunbeams. We sat there for I don’t know how long, not saying anything. The girls were unusually still for them, as if they had some sense of reverence for this beautiful place. There was a feeling of tranquillity but also an atmosphere evocative of past times. As if centuries of activities had soaked into the fabric of the building, layer upon layer, and were now reaching out wanting to tell their story.
And then our reverie was broken as the timber entrance door was pushed from the outside and a head popped around it. We jumped up apologetically, with the guilt of children caught scrumping for apples in an orchard. It was the church warden whose job it was to lock the church at the end of the day. He actually apologised for disturbing us and joked about nearly locking us in. We offered to leave but he insisted there was no hurry; he would come back later when we had finished.
It was a moment that has always stayed with me and my children; but it is just a microscopic point in time within the nearly 600 year life of the church.
I now know that the church dates back to the early 15th century a few years before the hot-headed Yorkists and Lancastrians fought out the bloodiest battle ever to be staged on English soil at Towton, just a short ride away on a fast steed.
Fast forward 200 years and we have the locality dominated by the Fairfax family some of whom were also national political figures and who worshipped at the church. Close your eyes and you can drift back to 1644 and imagine General Sir Thomas Fairfax (black Tom) and his acolytes stopping off at the church, divesting themselves of their arms in the porch, and paying homage to their maker before setting off to support Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads in the slaughter of a few thousand Royalists at Marston Moor . There is a unique funerary memorial to Thomas’ father Ferdinando, 2nd Lord Fairfax, on the wall of the south aisle.
The church has survived intact with its dignified presence through to the present day, the Cathedral of the Ainsty. From hot-heads and Roundheads to skinheads it has seen the lot and has always been available to provide succour and support to all those who have needed it. It remains there to be cherished. Yes as a place of worship but also as a building in its own right with splendid architecture and as the centrepiece of a quintessential English village.
Legally the title to the church will rest with the Church of England. But in reality it belongs to us, to the community. It is our legacy from past generations and we have been entrusted with its care. If this venerable old building is ever to slip into decay and disrepair then it must not, as they say, be on our watch.
The church celebrates its 600th anniversary in 2024. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to give it a celebration to remember for the next 600 years? But before we can do that there are urgent restoration works that have to be completed. The nave roof requires a major overhaul with the stripping and renewal of its slates and the tower roof covering needs replacing. There is also substantial work required internally within the belfry.
The PCC is planning the restoration works but, with costs projected at up to £300,000, they are dependent upon external funding. They are hopeful of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund but there are additional works required beyond the urgent restoration of the nave and tower roofs for which additional funding will be required.
Because of its historical significance the appeal of the church reaches beyond the boundaries of our immediate community. The PCC has had messages in support of its project from leading historians and from current members of the Fairfax family including the 14th Lord Fairfax.
The PCC has a vision that sees the church being actively managed as the hub of the local community, a place of retreat and sanctuary for those seeking spiritual comfort, an attraction to visitors and a superb venue for weddings.
First they must deal with the urgent restoration works and then progress their overriding vision for the church as the focus of the community, culminating in the 600 year anniversary celebrations in 2024. They have much to do and only 9 years in which to do it.
Phil Heron