Saints Peter and Paul Church (Pickering)

Church and tower from the west

The St Peter and St Paul's Church is a church in Pickering in the county of North Yorkshire in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber in England . The church is one of the Most Important Buildings with Grade I status on the UK Official List of Monuments .

location

The church is located on a hill above the center of Pickering and is surrounded by a cemetery with stately trees.

Church building and its history

The first church to be built on this site probably dates from the Anglo-Saxon period. The baptismal font and a cross in the church have been preserved from her.

The current church was built from 1140 and underwent many changes in the following centuries: for example, the north aisle in 1150 and the south aisle in 1190. The tower collapsed around 1200. This was previously in the middle of the church and has now been moved to the west side. The spire was added later. The choir was enlarged around 1300 to accommodate the increasingly elaborate church services of the time . This created the unusual situation that the choir is wider than the ship. There are two side chapels next to the choir . The northern one was built in 1337 and contains a picture of Sir William Bruce, which has been moved to the choir steps to make way for the current organ. The southern side chapel was built in 1407. There are two paintings there: by Sir David and Dame Margery Roucliffe. The church underwent the last major change in the 15th century. The walls of the nave were raised and the windows in the upper aisle were added.

Church tower above the town center
sundial
Church interior
capital
Capital green man
capital

Murals

The main attraction of the Pickering Church are the wall paintings in the nave. These follow the medieval liturgical calendar. It is believed that the paintings were commissioned in 1450. They cover a large part of the walls of the main nave and show scenes from the lives of saints, seven works of mercy , the passion , death and resurrection of Christ along with the jaws of hell.

The pictures were painted over at the time of the Reformation and came back to life in an accident in 1852 when the plaster fell off the wall. Although the vicar on duty, everend F. Ponsonby, had the frescoes uncovered originally, he did not like them and, to the annoyance of the Archbishop of York, insisted that they should be repainted. A new vicar, Reverend GH Lightfoot, had the overpainting removed again in 1876 and the paintings restored.