There was probably a Saxon church on the site of the present parish church.  There is the fragment of a shaft of a Saxon cross at the back of the church; the bowl of the font is possibly Saxon and stones possibly belonging to an early church can be seen in the fabric of the building. This Saxon church may well have been wasted during William’s ‘Harrying of the North’ and was replaced eventually by a Norman church.

Like most medieval churches it shows a medley of styles because it was extended piecemeal to meet the demands of a growing population.  A north aisle was added about 1150 and one on the south side towards the end of the 12th century.  The present west tower was built in the early part of the 13th century and sometime in the 14th century the chancel was widened and the porch added to the entrance.

In the 15th century two chantry chapels were added but only one has survived, the Roucliffe Chapel on the south side of the sanctuary.  When the chantries were abolished it became a school.  In the 1920s the Reverend Drage refurbished this chapel then a ‘lumber room’ so that it became a place of prayer.

In the second half of the 15th century the roof was raised and a clerestory was built.  This major rebuilding would have destroyed the wall paintings and so itinerant painters would have been called in to repaint and decorate the walls.


Nikolaus Pevsner, the renowned expert on architectural history said of the paintings that “This is one of the most complete series of wall paintings...... and they give one a vivid idea of what ecclesiastical interiors were really like”  They vary in scale and in what they depict.  Some are large single figures and others tell stories.  Details of each scene are given in the church guide available in the church bookshop.

Visit our dedicated page on the wall paintingsEvidence of them being painted in the 1460s lies in the costumes and armour of some of the figures depicted and there is documentary evidence that they were more extensive than those on show today.

Probably at the time of the Reformation and certainly with the spread of Puritanism they were hidden from view with coats of whitewash.

In 1852 repairs and cleaning in the nave revealed the paintings and people travelled from quite long distances to view them.  The vicar, the Reverend Ponsoby wanted them recovered and showed his dislike of them in a letter to the Archbishop saying...... “as a work of art (they are) fairly ridiculous, would excite feelings of curiosity. And distract the congregation”.  He went on to say that “ the paintings are out of place in a protestant Church, especially in these dangerous times”                    

The vicar had them recovered in a thick yellow wash within a fortnight of the discovery.  Fortunately what had been revealed was recorded by drawings made by Mr W H Dykes, an assistant architect at Durham Cathedral.

In the 1870s the church underwent extensive restoration, to the tower and the transepts particularly.  Box pews were replaced with the present oak pews and two galleries were dismantled. All this ended in 1879 and the final stage of the work, the restoring of the paintings was commenced   The firm of Shrigley and Hunt of Lancaster was commissioned to restore the paintings and in removing the covering paint and in taking memorials off the walls of the nave a lot of damage was done to the paintings.  The decision was made by the Reverend Lightfoot to restore the paintings where it was possible rather than leave them fragmented.  They were extensively repainted and the whole project was finished by 1895.



The interior of the church remained true to the plans of the Victorian restorers for most of the 20th century.  The chancel screen was erected in 1927 and the oak panelling of the Sanctuary was completed in the same decade with a new reredos dedicated in 1930.  The vestries were added in the 1930s.  More recent re-ordering gives witness to the fact that the church continues to respond to the need for change in the same way that its medieval forebears did.

In 1997 the church council decided to carry out extensive re-ordering. Pews were removed from the west end of the nave to allow the font to be replaced and to provide an open ‘medieval’ space for congregating after services to stage displays and for visitors to stand to appreciate the building with its wall paintings.  The stages of the reordering included the provision of a disabled access through a wall in the south transept, the establishment of a memorial chapel in the south transept with a moveable altar which could be used as a nave altar, the screening off of the north transept to provide storage space and the refurbishment of the vestries.  This work completed in 2008 has enlivened the church and provided opportunities for different forms of worship.