Old Malton village is traditionally thought to be the original settlement of Malton, before its destruction by Archbishop Thurston in 1138. Certainly the earliest parish church of Malton was located in this area, probably on this site. Fragments of tenth century Saxon and eleventh century Anglo-Scandinavian carved stone crosses suggest that there was a church here before the arrival of the Normans.
The choice of this site for a church was probably largely dictated by nearby quarries for suitable stone, while the name Ladyspring Wood given to nearby woodland implies that the artesian springs, still welling up there just by the river, were possibly a pre-existing sacred site. The find of a Roman altar close by the church is also suggestive.
The Gilbertines
The present church is all that remains of a priory of the Gilbertine Order, the only fully English monastic order, founded by Gilbert of Sempringham in about 1131. Gilbert was the crippled son of a Norman knight. His father, disappointed that his heir would clearly be unable to make a success of military life placed him in the church. On returning to Sempringham from university, Gilbert set up an order originally for enclosed contemplative nuns. He soon expanded it to include lay sisters, lay brothers and ultimately canons under a rule drawing on Cistercian and Benedictine traditions. Most houses had nuns, lay brothers and sisters, and canons, but Malton was simply a house of canons. Gilbertine austerity made these houses popular and relatively cheap for benefactors to endow; poor land could be made use of and most Gilbertine houses were on heavy waterlogged soils (often prone to flooding. The order laid strong emphasis on the care of the poor, the sick and travellers. Despite his disability (Gilbert’s crutch is the symbol of the order) Gilbert himself remained responsible for the running of the order until he was about 95. Roger of Malton was appointed as his successor until Gilbert died aged 106. Gilbert was canonised in 1202. The order never spread beyond England and terminated with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and Malton is the only church built by the order still in use.
History
The earliest mention of a church here is in 1086 with an entry in the Domesday Book: In Maltune. Siuuard 7 Torchil. viii.car ad gld.... Ibi æccla 7 fed. 1. mold... (In Malton Siward and Thorkil hold 8 caruncates taxable... There is a church there and one mill...) However, little if anything remains of this church building. What remained after the twelfth century burning of Malton was handed over by Eustace Fitz-John in 1150 to the Gilbertine Order. Eustace had been heavily involved in the rebellions of 1138 and this donation was probably an attempt to expiate this. The new Priory was endowed with farmlands and churches in the surrounding area. The priory was never large by Cistercian standards, but as one of the largest Gilbertine houses it constituted one of the major local landowners and several canons represented the area in Parliament. In layout it seems to have been fairly typical of monasteries in general, but the buildings were more elaborate than most Gilbertine houses, which typically had churches of extremely simple layout with a nave or twin naves and perhaps a side chapel. Old Malton was originally aisled with transepts a central tower at the crossing and twin West End towers. This may reflect the relative wealth of the house, or the layout of a preceding parish church. An account given by William of Newburgh of the deaths of three monks poisoned by carbonic acid gas in the process of burning lime either for mortar or limewash suggests that major building works were still in progress in 1197.
Malton Priory was dissolved in December 1539 and the eleven canons resident in the Priory were pensioned off, about half of them becoming parish clergy in the area. Sometime before the time of the dissolution the church suffered its first major structural problems. The north-west tower seems to have collapsed in a fire causing major damage to the north side of the aisle. What is clear is that during the mastership of Roger de Shotton (1498-1518) the piers of the north side of the nave were re-modelled in the Perpendicular style.
From re-used stone visible throughout Old and New Malton, it is evident that after the Dissolution and on into the nineteenth century, the monastic buildings were used as a convenient quarry. The central tower was taken down in 1636 as it became unsafe, and the church sustained minor damage from cannonballs during the Civil War. The process of quarrying continued and by 1728 most of the monastic buildings were in ruins though the cloister walls were still standing. By 1733 the south aisle, the chancel and the transepts were all either fallen or demolished as was the north-west tower. The rest of the church was semi-ruinous and the parish was granted permission to demolish the north aisle, to reduce the height of the roof by 8 ft. and to shorten the East end of the aisle by 36 ft. despite furious protests from George Watson who owned the site. Records suggest that a stone rood screen was also demolished at this time. Further demolition took place during the late eighteenth century, followed by the addition of a west-end gallery. During the nineteenth century a triple lancet window was inserted in the east wall of a style consistent with the Early English West front, the remains of which can be seen on the outside of the east end.
1877 saw the start of major restoration works when the parish was faced with the imminent collapse of the remaining tower. On the advice of Gilbert Scott, a major underpinning operation was undertaken In 1887 the architect Temple Moore supervised restorations in the course of which the floor level was lowered 4 ft to its original level and those pillar basses in the south aisle apparently destroyed by a fire were restored. The east windows were blocked and the baldachino over the altar was put in. New chancel seating was installed incorporating the remaining medieval misericords, together with a new organ, font and altar. All this work is of fine quality, though occasionally as in the case of the font, slightly incongruous.
There are few other remains of the Gilbertine priory, apart from re-used fragments of worked stone in many local buildings. The undercroft of the monastery kitchen survives as a cellar in the adjoining Abbey House, as does the undercroft of one of three hospices run by the Priory as the cellar of the “Cross Keys” in New Malton. The “Doodles”, a small area of wooded wetland and earthworks near the priory is thought to be the site of the Priory fishponds.
The Church building
The church was built in two main phases, the main construction taking place between 1150 and 1200, followed by major repair and modifications about 1500.
Of the original church only the nave and part of the west facade remain standing. About 1150, work started at the east end of the church and progressed westwards finishing with the West Front in about 1200. The earlier parts are of a late transitional style with round arches and massive round piers but the style gradually changes as the builders moved westward and the building scheme culminates in the spectacular Early English of the West End. Little of the earliest work remains except for the impressive re-erected doorway in the churchyard. This doorway, possibly originally the entrance to the priory chapter house shows the elaborate beakhead decoration characteristic of Norman work, and has scalloped capitals similar to those in St Michael’s, New Malton. For many years this fine sculpture was laid against a wall and used as a cattle trough!
East of the standing church are the remains of the massive piers that supported the central tower and the doorway which lead from the cloister into the south aisle. It is still in its original position though it now functions as an entrance to the churchyard from the Abbey House. Its waterleaf capitals date it to about 1180; in the wall close to the doorway are the remains of a holy water stoup.
Most of the south wall of the existing church is Transitional in style dating from about 1180. The eastern piers are in a sturdy round Norman style and would have been brightly painted. In 1942, red and yellow paint was still apparently visible on the easternmost pillar but cannot now be seen. Although the clerestory was demolished in the 1730s the triforium remains above the arches which would have led through to the aisles. It has a mixture of round and pointed arches while blind panels alternate with arches to a gallery. Vaulting shafts on small corbels between the bays of the triforium suggest that there was once a vaulted roof to the nave but by 1733 when the clerestory was demolished the roof was recorded as coffered. However, both surviving vault bases and written accounts confirm that the south aisle at least was vaulted. As the builders moved westwards, new ideas were introduced. The last two pillars, which are much more complex and definitely Early English in style, seem slightly incongruous with the round arches. Several compass-drawn graffiti can be seen on the second pier from the west and on the west wall. The latter may be a sketch for a Romanesque arch but modern shelving largely blocks it from view. Another apparent mason’s mark is consistent with that of one of the twelfth century masons working at Byland, so possibly he worked at both churches.
The west facade is a fine piece of Early English from about 1200, slightly at variance with the spectacular west doorway, which is a fine example of transitional Romanesque. Its round arch has five orders of moulding in a mixture of Norman and early English motifs and colonettes with leaf-crocket capitals. The surviving tower has elegant shafted windows, one with “Beverley rose” decoration characteristic of East Yorkshire, and quatrefoil openings above the twin bell-openings. The east wall of the tower shows clear evidence of the serious settlement that led to the underpinning work in the 1870s.
The north side of the nave was re-modelled sometime around 1500. The eastern piers are octagonal. One, known as “The Prior’s Column” is elaborately panelled and has an inscription referring to Prior Roger Shotton carved on the capital. Chiselled damage to the base of the central panel suggests that a saint’s image or an altar may have been removed at the Reformation. The inscription, which includes a rebus of an arrow through a barrel (Shot-tun), is partly inverted suggesting an illiterate carver copying from a parchment sketch. Shotton’s rebus also appears on an angel corbel on the south wall of the demolished north tower. The stone screen destroyed in the eighteenth century probably dated from this period and a possible fragment remains in the wall of the old Grammar school adjoining the churchyard. The perpendicular style west window was presumably inserted as part of the same building programme, which may well have included a re-furbishment of the choir seating, as the eight surviving medieval misericords seem to date from this period. The floor of the church was also covered partially or entirely in green-glazed floor tiles, some of which were found during the floor-lowering of 1887
Inside the church look out for:
Archaeological remains. At the back of the church are a number of carved stones found over the years in and around the churchyard. They include Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian cross-heads, a small Roman altar and fragments from the monastic buildings recovered in excavations by Canon Purvis in the 1930s.
The Misericords. While only eight of the original hinged seats survive the nineteenth century ones are also well worth looking at. They imitate the liveliness of the medieval style but make no pretence of being old, featuring figures in tail-coats as well as medieval clothing!
A thirteenth century tomb slab This tomb cover, probably for a prior, is unlikely to be in its original position. Its cross design seems to incorporate the crutch motif of the Gilbertines.
Victorian church furnishings. The pews are early nineteenth century as is some of the stained glass but the baldachino and altar together with the organ and the gothic font all date from the 1880s
Outside the church look out for:
Ruins of the church and monastic buildings. If you go out of the arched doorway that once led to the cloister and stand on the drive that leads to Abbey House you will get a good idea of how large the church once was.
Medieval drying coffins. In the area where the great tower stood there are three sarcophagi, stone coffins into which bodies were put to decay before they were buried inside the church.
Parish coffin shelter. In the wall of the churchyard by the old School house is the shelf where the parish coffin was once stored. The parish coffin was used to carry the dead into church for funerals but then the body was removed and buried in just a shroud.
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