Church of Holy Trinity

Details

SE 08 NE WENSLEY WENSLEY

9/84 Church of Holy Trinity 13/2/67

- I

Church. C13, C14, C15, and 1719. Rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs with lead to chancel and north porch. West tower, nave with aisles and north and south porches, chancel with north vestry. Tower, dated 1719, of 3 stages. Shallow clasping buttresses to ground floor only. West window of 2 segmental-arched lights with circle in plate tracery above, with scrolls and date on spandrels, all in chamfered round-arched surrounds with imposts and keystone. First floor: single-light chamfered windows to ringing chamber on west and south, matching door giving access to nave roof on east, clock on north side. 4 light vents to stair turret on south side. Second floor: on all four sides belfry openings similar to west window. Plain parapet with small obelisks at corners. South aisle: west window similar to west window of tower but in double-chamfered surround. South porch: C15; gabled, with roof of shallow pitch, and stepped diagonal buttresses. Opening with alternate hollow and roll moulding, label and no capitals. Above sundial dated 1846. Roll moulding on coping. Inside: stone benches, south doorway: hollow-chamfered moulding with stopped label, no capitals. South aisle: early C14. Stepped plinth, string course. 3 bays divided by shallow offset buttresses continued up above parapet in C15 to form crocketted ogee niches containing armorial shields. Two 2-light Y- tracery windows with trefoil-cusped lights with hollow-chamfered surrounds and labels with heads on stops. 2 animal gargoyles. Parapet with roll moulding on coping. South aisle east window: 3 trefoil-headed lights under plain label. North aisle: west window, as west window of south aisle. North porch: C14. Gabled, stepped diagonal buttresses. Opening with hollow-chamfered moulding without capitals, and label with weathered heads to stops. Above, square plaque within hollow and roll moulded surround, containing coat of arms of Scrope family below a weathered head. Inside: stone benches. North doorway: deeply-chamfered pointed arch with pierced tracery in apex, shafts with Early English capitals, hollow and roll moulding to label, with heads on stops, at top forming a tall gabled canopy above doorway. North aisle: early C14. Stepped plinth, string course. buttresses as on south aisle, but with crested tops to copings resting on small decorated corbels. Two 2-light windows as on south aisle, 2 animal gargoyles. North aisle east window: 3 trefoil-headed lights in hollow- chamfered surround. Chancel: C13. South side: 2 shallow offset buttresses between 3 double-chamfered lancet windows, the westernmost with a mullion, the middle one over a priest's door with chamfered surround. East window with 5 trefoil-headed lights with trefoils in plate tracery above outer lights. Gable cross. North vestry: 2 storeys. On east side, to each floor a flat-headed 2-light window with trefoil cusping to semicircular-headed lights. Roll moulding to coping. Interior: early C14 double-chamfered tower arch, early C14 tall double-chamfered 3-bay arcades on octagonal piers and early C14 double-chamfered chancel arch. South chancel windows have deep double chamfers with shafting and bold dog-tooth. Piscina with trefoiled head and irregular trefoils in spandrels. In chancel floor, brass to Sir Simon Wensley, d.1394, also nearby one to Oswald Dykes, Rector, d.1607. Richly carved bench ends dated 1527 terminating the choir stalls. C17 communion rail. C15 rood screen in tower arch with thin traceried divisions. In nave, the Scrope family pew, consisting of C17 classical front with pendant round arches and at the back, richly carved early C16 parclose screen made for the Scrope chantry in Easby Abbey and brought to Wensley at the Dissolution. C17 benches and some C18 box pews. C18 double- decker pulpit. Octagonal font dated 1662, with contemporary wooden cover with pineapple finial. Wooden box with C15 traceried panelling, perhaps a reliquary, converted to an alms box with an old padlock. At west end of nave, medieval grave cover with floriate cross. On north wall, black marble memorial to Henry and Richard Scrope, d,1525. On south wall, memorial to Mathew Bateman d.1677 and other benefactors. Fragments of medieval wall paintings on north wall. Fragments of medieval stained glass in east window of north aisle. Royal coat of arms dated 1701 in elegant frame, with arms of Lord Bolton on reverse. Standard of 'Loyal Dales' Volunteers, raised in response to Napoleonic threat. VCH i, pp 275-8; H.B. McCall, 'Richmondshire Churches' (1910), pp 158-186.

Listing NGR: SE0920789535

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

321832

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1914), 275-8
McGall, HB, Richmondshire Churches, (1910), 158-186

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