Reminder of past glories of St Mary’s Priory Church in Old Malton

THERE’S something wonderfully lopsided about St Mary’s Priory Church in Old Malton. You notice it as soon as you enter the quiet churchyard.

The west face of the church which confronts you is imposing, with its superb Norman arch and substantial south-west tower. But it looks unbalanced, incomplete: as though there should be a matching tower to the north-west.

As in fact there should.

The church is a ‘shadow of its former self’, admits Catherine Stallybrass, the parish administrator, a little wistfully. “It used to be about the same size as Ripon Cathedral!”

That is no exaggeration. For several hundred years, from about 1150 to 1539, when it was closed during the dissolution of the monasteries, this was a Gilbertine priory.

At its height there were about 30 canons living here, under the leadership of a prior.

A drawing hanging inside the church suggests what the priory may have looked like in its heyday. It shows a balanced west face, with square towers to both north and south, then a third, much larger central tower to the east.

The entire east side of the old priory is now gone, as are the cloisters, dormitory, refectory and kitchens that would once have served the canons. They would have been clustered to the south of the church, on the land that stretches towards the River Derwent.

Walk around behind the church and you can still see the remains of the piers of the long-gone central tower. Nearby, standing on end, are three medieval stone ‘drying coffins’: so called because they were used to hold bodies while they decayed and dried out, before being buried in the church itself.

While only a fragment of the Gilbertine priory remains, this is still a very special church – and one with a fascinating history.

It owes the fact that it became a priory at all to two remarkable men: one an ambitious medieval magnate; the other a cripple who went on to found a religious order.

First, that magnate. He was Eustace Fitz-John, Lord of Alnwick and Malton, personal friend of King Henry I, and one of the most powerful men in the north of England.

On the death of Henry I in 1135, however, he made what Catherine Stallybrass calls a ‘huge schoolboy error’.

He backed the wrong side in the civil war that broke out following the old king’s death, supporting Matilda and the Scots against Henry’s nephew, King Stephen.

That put Eustace on the losing side against the troops of the Archbishop of York, Thurstan of Bayeaux, at the 1138 Battle of the Standard. Thurstan burned down Malton (now Old Malton) that same year.

Eustace was obviously a canny politician. He survived, and even managed to hold on to most of his lands. But, presumably in an attempt to expiate his sins, he endowed two priories – one of them here at Old Malton.

There was already a church on the site – it is mentioned in the Domesday book. Eustace handed over what was left of it after the burning of Malton to the Gilbertine order.

That order had been founded in 1131 by Gilbert of Sempringham. The son of a Lincolnshire Lord of the Manor, Gilbert had been born a cripple, Catherine says.

Unable to pursue the military career his father would no doubt have preferred for him, he went off to Paris to study theology, returning to England in 1120 to become clerk to the Bishop of Lincoln.

He started a school for both boys and girls in Sempringham and, on his father’s death, used his wealth to expand his new order of Gilbertine nuns and priors.

The order was unique both in being mainly English, and in accepting both men and women, says Catherine: although the priory at Old Malton – one of more than 20 Gilbertine convents, monasteries and missions – was men only.

It survived as a priory until 1539, when it became one of the last monastic houses to be closed as a result of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

The 11 canons still living at the priory were treated rather gently, Catherine says – perhaps partly because this was an English order, and also perhaps because it was not a particularly wealthy or extravagant priory, so there was not much to steal. Half of the canons went on to become local clergymen.

Over the following centuries, the monastic buildings were used as a convenient source of building material – stone from the priory can be seen in buildings through Old and ‘new’ Malton. The central tower was taken down in 1636 because it had become unsafe, and the church’s website records that the building may also have been damaged by cannonballs in the Civil War.

By 1877, the one remaining tower was in danger of collapse. A major operation to underpin it was carried out – and the noted architect Temple Moore was brought in to supervise a major restoration of the church.

This included the blocking up of the east windows, and the construction of an ornate ‘baldacchino’ or canopy above the altar.

For visitors to the church today, there is a great deal to see.

A glass cabinet contains a reminder of how long this site has been a place of worship.

It includes a small Roman altar, and an early Anglo-Saxon cross.

In the chancel, you can see Temple Moore’s magnificent Victorian furnishings – including the reredos, altar and baldacchino. The organ and Gothic font also date from the 1880s.

There are a few wonderful hidden secrets, too – not least the misercords, or hinged ‘mercy’ seats, in the choir.

They provide wonderful support when you have to stand for long periods during a service, says Catherine.

But it is when you turn them up that you glimpse their true secrets. The underside of each seat is beautifully carved. Many of those carvings are Victorian – but a few, at least, are medieval.

One shows an owl with a wizened, eerie face – owls in medieval times were generally viewed as dark, even evil creatures, says Roy Thompson, the York diocese’s tourism officer. Another shows an astonishingly lifelike carving of a camel. Assuming it is medieval, where on earth did the craftsman who carved it get to see such a creature?

Just one of the many wonders of this fascinating church.

Some facts about St Mary’s

• St Mary’s Priory Church, Town Street, Old Malton.

• Open every day, 9am-5pm. Parish office: 01653 692089, email office@stmarysmalton.org.uk

• Sunday services at 8am (Holy Communion), 11am (Mattins) and 6.30pm (evensong). Friday service at 6.30pm (Compline).

• Cars can be parked in the churchyard or on the Gannock, opposite the Royal Oak pub.

• The church is part of the new benefice of Malton and Old Malton.

• The new vicar, Canon Peter Robinson, will have a special service of introduction at the church led by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, at 7.30pm on Monday December 2.