St Augustine’s is now a thriving parish church, but it did not have that function to start with. Originally designed and built by Walter Skirlaw, the Prince Bishop of Durham, as a chantry chapel, it was constructed between 1401 and 1405 in the Perpendicular style. It was built on what was probably the site of the original earlier chapel of ease in Skirlaugh and would have come under the administration of the Church and Priory at Swine.
Walter Skirlaw paid for the chapel, and in his will left funding for two priests to say regular masses for his soul.
We wonder what the villagers thought when the church was being built? It would have been a hive of activity, with the foundations being dug out, the stone arriving, wood being cut down in order to make scaffolding poles. The stone which is high quality magnesium limestone known as ashlar, was quarried near Tadcaster. It would begin its journey on the river Wharfe, into the Ouse, which flows into the Humber estuary. From there it would travel down the river Hull to the point nearest to Skirlaw. The stone would then probably have been transported across land by sledges pulled by oxen. The workforce would be itinerant workers who followed the work. Where did they live? Where did they get their provisions from? Did they interact with the local population? These are questions to which we have no definite answers, but it is intriguing to think about, and to imagine the effect of this on the villagers.
This building was being created in their village, and being paid for by a local man who had risen through the ranks of the clergy to a position of great importance. However, for the first 50 years of it would have very little impact on their lives, as it was not a place of worship for the people, but a chantry chapel for Walter Skirlaw, so that priests could pray for his soul. Were they very disappointed? Perhaps they were looking forward to having a church of their own, and not having to walk 3 miles to the priory in Swine on a Sunday, or other holy days.
Once the church became a Parish Church peasants would have paid a tithe to the Church – 10% of what they produced on their land. The Parish Church became central to medieval life.
Imagine the scene, into a small settlement of a few torts, came a huge workforce. People to transport the stone, scaffolders, glaziers, labourers to dig the trenches for the foundations and fell the trees to be used to make scaffolding. The building site was a hive of activity, with workshops built all around the edge. The dressed stones were brought to the masons in hods, barrows or baskets. Nearby, labourers were mixing mortar for the walls. this job was sometimes done by women. The rooves were often covered with lead. Glass was made from a mixture of sand and vegetable cinders, melted together in hot ovens. While the glass was runny, different colours were added. The building work paused over the winter. The tops of the walls were covered with straw and dung to stop the mortar cracking during frost, and the whole building site settled down to wait out the winter.
When every other building you set foot in was made of wood and mud, how awe inspiring would this building be? churches were the most ambitious buildings in the medieval landscape.
How is it different from other churches?
This church was built as a chantry chapel, a place just for priests to perform the duty of praying for the soul of their patron, not for the villagers’ everyday worship. It did not therefore have any of the furnishings or features you might normally expect at that date.
There was no rood screen, a wooden screen separating the main part of the church (the nave) from the area around the high altar (the chancel), or any memorials or statues. There would have been no pulpit for sermons, or pews for the people, nor any wall paintings of saints.
Chantry chapels were built solely for one or more priests to celebrate the Mass as often as possible in the belief that this would help the soul get out of Purgatory (a sort of lesser, temporary hell where sins were burned away) and into heaven quicker.
They were not designed for ordinary people to attend services, although they could come and witness the Masses being performed.
Church Interior
Wall painting
The interior walls of the building were originally plastered using a horsehair and lime mix, which once dried would have been decoratively painted.
After the Reformation these patterns were whitewashed, and would have been replaced by inscriptions and quotations from the Bible, picked out in red.
Examples of this can still be seen on the wall between the windows over the bookcase, and over the cabinet in the corner by the entrance to what is now the kitchen.
Piscina
The piscina (the little ledge with a shallow depression) on the east wall below the main window are original, and were the equivalent of modern washing up bowls.
Following mass, or later Holy Communion, they would be used by the priest to wash the chalice and ciborium, the receptacles for the wine and host which are the blood and body of Christ in the Mass. They drained directly into the earth, and were there to ensure that no part of the wine or host was spilled or lost.
Changes of the 16th/17th centuries
The first significant changes to the building took place in around 1501, about 100 years after it was built. This is probably when the building was adapted to become a parish chapel of ease from a private chantry chapel.
Tower
The Tower at the West end was added using different building materials, which you can see inside. The main building is constructed from very expensive magnesian limestone (the same as York Minster and Beverley Minster) – look at the way the large blocks are cut and fitted.
The Tower however is built from rubble stone, and is mixed in with river cobble stones. It is clad on the outside with a lower grade of limestone, which has eroded far more quickly over time.
The Nave and chancel
During this time, the interior was divided by a carved wooden rood screen, which stood about a third of the way down the nave from the east window. It had a staircase so the priest could climb to the top to deliver the sermon or gospel.
The congregation would have stood for these services facing the screen, or would have brought their own seating. This screen was removed at the Reformation, so was only in place for around fifty years, but look for ‘scars’ in the walls!
A porch was added, probably around the same time as the tower, and a font supplied. What is now the vestry may have had a door cut to allow entrance and exit. This was probably part of the original chantry chapel, a place to keep vestments and supplies such as candles.
17th century graffiti. The interior of the church has changed a lot over time, as has the worship. Some graffiti may reflect boredom from people sitting listening to long sermons
Becoming a parish church – when and how did things change?
When did it change?
Within a few decades of Walter’s death, and possibly when the money he’d left to pay for the chantry priests started to run out, the church was altered to become a ‘chapel of ease’ in the parish of Swine. This was somewhere the villagers could use for parish worship without having to walk to Swine – although they would still attend Swine at least once a year, usually Easter.
The church continued as a ‘chapel of ease’ until 1867 when it became a parish in its own right. This meant that for most of its life it would have shared a priest with Swine and have been regarded as part of that parish for financial and administrative purposes.
Before the 19th century, the priest’s income depended upon tithes (originally a 10% tax paid on harvests) and the income and produce from the glebe (the land which came with the job). Splitting a parish was therefore a serious financial matter.
The original building was more of a rectangle, with windows at each end, a stone flagged floor, no porch, and no tower.
Windows
The east window would probably have depicted an image of Walter Skirlaw himself, but unfortunately no records survive, so we can only surmise as to how it may have looked.
Fragments of original mediaeval glass from the time of Walter Skirlaw have been incorporated into the current east window which is now filled with clear glass and mediaeval fragments. You can see the initials WS, a chalice and an angel.
