John's labour of love

So dominated is the skyline of York by the Gothic bulk of the Minster, that it's easy to forget the city and its surrounding villages are home to some of the most remarkable array of churches and places of worship in the country - each with a tale to tell.

And one Yorkshireman has made it a labour of love to visit and chronicle the history of each and every one of them.

John Gilleghan, a retired teacher turned lecturer and newspaper columnist on local history, is pretty sure he hasn't missed any of the York, Selby and Harrogate area's religious sites out of his new book, Worship North and East of Leeds.

"There are 437 churches in the triangle north of the River Aire, and I went to see all of them over five years.

"It was absolutely a labour of love," said Mr Gilleghan, of Whitkirk, Leeds, who has written articles on local history for the Leeds Express since 1981.

He had the densely-packed book, which is the third and final volume of his complete guide, published and printed himself and thoroughly expects to make a loss on it.

"The loss doesn't bother me - and every church featured has received a free copy to sell for funds."

He ranks the restoration of All Saints', North Street, York, which was devastated by fire in 1997, as one of the most remarkable stories he came across during his research.

He visited the church immediately after the fire.

"It was a horrendous sight," he said.

In his book he describes All Saints' as boasting some of the best medieval glass in the city, and reveals that it was even suggested in 1968 it close and become the York Glass Museum.

For much of this century it was still home to a solitary anchorite, with the last lay brother to live there leaving in the 1960s.

He chronicles the fire damage in February 1997, the restoration and the rededication by the Archbishop of York in a Pontifical High Mass in January 1998.

"York has the best conglomeration of churches in the country," said Mr Gilleghan.

He took the opportunity to produce the definitive guidebook to the Minster and to Selby Abbey, after deciding he was unhappy with the more tourist-oriented publications produced by them.

He said the guides at both cathedrals had been an invaluable help in putting it together.

"I couldn't have done this without their help."

At the Minster, Mr Gilleghan said he had been round the entire building 20 times.

And as to the recent rumpus about whether it really is called the Minster - the book gives its name as both York Minster and as The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York.

The definitive tour starts at the south west door and goes anti-clockwise round the memorials, on a guided walk which takes in the war dead of several centuries, a memorial to William Wilberforce, the Hull MP who abolished slavery, and archbishops and noblemen throughout the ages.

It then repeats the journey with a guide to the stained glass, from the 1338 Heart Of Yorkshire in the great west window, to the famously restored Rose Window.

Selby Abbey, or, if you would, The Abbey Church of Selby dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Germain, was the first monastery to be founded in the North after the Norman Conquest. Again, Mr Gilleghan provides a detailed walk round the whole abbey, noting details like the epitaph of abbey gravestone cutter Frank Raw from 1706: "What Frank used to do for others is now done for Frank by another."

Among the smaller churches with a story to tell is the chapel in the Shambles to York's own martyr, St Margaret Clitherow, who was pressed to death for harbouring Catholic priests in 1586, and declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Though she actually lived at 10 Shambles, the shrine is at 35 Shambles, which was bought by the York Diocese in 1945.

Margaret Clitherow's statue shares pride of place with that of the less well-known Blessed Thomas Thwing of Heworth, the last priest to suffer hanging, drawing and quartering.

At Bilbrough, near Tadcaster, St James' Church boasts the tomb of a man who the city and churches of York owe a great debt to - Black Tom Fairfax, who as general of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army, led the Parliamentarians to victory at Naseby. Fairfax's intervention helped preserve the stained glass of the Minster and other churches from being destroyed by Cromwell's forces when the city was besieged during the English Civil War.

Mr Gilleghan also enthuses about fine examples of Norman churches at Askham Bryan and Askham Richard.

At Askham Bryan, his book traces the history of the village's Preston family, through memorials in the church, from Darcy Preston, son of a Minster organist, who bought the Askham Bryan estate in 1725, and served as town clerk of York.

The line of Prestons of Askham Bryan buried at the church continues up to 1992.

St Mary's, Askham Richard, dates from ten years after the Norman Conquest, despite some 19th century restorations, and stands on the ancient site of a Saxon church.

Mr Gilleghan also describes Harrogate as having a remarkable array of churches, one of which, Grove Methodist Church, was the venue in 1934 for a sermon by Nobel peace prize winning African missionary Dr Albert Schweizer, which is commemorated by a plaque in the church.

Worship North And East Of Leeds, by John Gilleghan, is available from Pickerings, Dillons, WHSmith and Waterstones in York, Wetherby Bookshop, Walkers in Harrogate and all Leeds bookshops.

PICTURE: Author John Gilleghan (Picture: Leeds Express).