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
