Welcome to St. Margaret's Church, Aislaby
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A BRIEF CHURCH HISTORY
 | The foundation stone of St. Margaret's was laid in September 1896, so the present Church cannot claim great antiquity, as can many others in England. However, after more than one hundred years of prayer and worship by generations of Aislaby Parish families, an atmosphere of peace and tranquility pervades, redolent with memories of their service, gifts and deeds. Many visitors sense this and comment upon it.
There is speculation as to why the church is called St. Margaret's but it is believed to be dedicated thus because a piece of land near Aislaby, called St. Margaret's Launds, was given and used to maintain a light in the Aislaby Chapel, and called St. Margaret's Light.
The foundation of the todays church was laid in September 1896 and, on completion, was cared for by the Rev. A.M. Bolland. Prior to the new church there was no village churchyard so the dead had to be buried in the Lythe churchyard. The first entry in the burial register of the new church (still in use today) is of Julia Mary Hope of Bank House Farm, aged eleven days.
The Rev. A.Ll. Meyricke was instituted as the first Vicar in 1913 and shortly afterwards Newholm and Dunsley were added to the Parish. Rev.Meyricke continued as Vicar until his death in 1950
The Tower of the church is dedicated (by his seven nieces) to the memory of Archdeacon Yeoman who laid the foundation stone in 1896.
The clock in the tower was given in memory of Lieutenant Douglas Fenton de Wend who was killed at Ypres on November 14th 1914. It was given by his mother and sisters and was started on the anniversary of his death in 1915. The clock is by Potts of Leeds and was wound weekly by the first Vicar until his death in 1950, and afterwards by his gardener and friend, Jack Bedlington, until he died in 1988, and since then by Vivian Day.
The church organ is a rare example of the work of Peter Conacher Co., of Huddersfield and was presented by Thomas Pierson in memory of his wife Anne.
The west window is a beautiful creation, by T.F. Curtis Ward & Hughes of London, of the Transfiguration, and was presented in 1905 in memory of Thomas and Anne Pierson of Park Hall who were resident in the village for nearly fifty years.
(More notes and images will follow but a booklet
containing a comphensive history of the church can be obtained from Church Wardens , price £1.00) |
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The Old Chapel
There was a chapel in Aislaby more than eight hundred and fifty years ago, rebuilt in 1150 on the site of a much earlier one. This pre-Reformation Chapel was destroyed, or became disused, after the Civil War and the execution of King Charles I in 1649. According to Charlton's history of Whitby "Aislaby Chapel was rebuilt in 1732 after lying in ruins for almost eighty years". The rebuilt chapel was in use from 1732 until the present church was completed in 1897, after which it became the Aislaby Parish Hall and is still in use as such to this day.
The picture is of the chapel in Victorian times with the parson, believed to be the Rev. A.M. Bolland. The bell above the gable end is understood to be the one now in the tower of the new church, and was cast at the Whitechapel Foundry, London in 1771.(Picture to follow)
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