Pickering Church
Glance up at a remarkable medieval
mural artwork, which includes archers who might remind us of our poacher
ancestors
The webpage
on Pickering includes a chronology and
source material.
Medieval
Wall Paintings provide a contemporary portal into the world of the Pickering
Poachers
The A170
from Thirsk through Kirkbymoorside will take you to Pickering. The church is
easy to find in the village.
The first
church on the site of the modern church of St Peter and St Paul was built in
the Anglo-Saxon era. Little is known about the early church, but there are some
visible signs of the original church inside the modern building, including the
stone font and a carved cross shaft.
The church
was rebuilt in about 1140, in a simple cruciform, with a central tower
surrounded by a nave, chancel and two transcripts. There were additions to the church in 1190
and significant alterations were made in 1200 when the tower collapsed. A new
large tower took three hundred years to complete. In 1300 the chancel was
enlarged. In 1337 a chantry chapel was added by Sir
William Bruce, whose effigy is near the lectern.
As those inhabitants
of Farndale who were caught poaching
were taken to stand trial at Pickering
Castle, the church was no doubt the focal point of the village. It may be that
Richard
and Thomas of Farndale, and John
de Farndale, who were all excommunicated, with their cases heard at
Pickering Castle, may have offended in some way against the clergy of
Pickering. We don’t know the canonical offences committed of these three
Farndales, from the records, and so can’t be sure where their heretical crimes
were committed.
The remarkable
features of the Pickering Church, and the main purpose for a visit in an
ancestral trail, are the medieval paintings. They were commissioned in the
1450s. They were later covered during the protestant Reformation, and only
rediscovered in 1852.
They depict religious
stories, in the tradition of Biblia Paupersum, the ‘poor man’s bible’.
In doing so, they depict such scenes as the martyrdom of St Edmund, defeated by
Viking invaders in 870 CE. In doing so they depict scenes which must have been
familiar to the local audience, including the archers who feature in the Edmund
depiction. They provide a contemporary depiction of archers, which might help
us to get a flavour of the archers of Pickering Forest, and perhaps allow us a
glimpse of our archer ancestors.
There is
also a depiction of the descent into hell, which might have focused the minds
of our excommunicated ancestors.
The
paintings are stunning, and worth of a visit. There’s no need for Florence,
with medieval murals like these, which take us to our own direct history.
or
Go Straight to Chapter
7 – Poachers of Pickering Forest