St Anne’s Church: A Medieval Parish Church in Catterick
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Anglo-Saxon, British, English
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page17 sections
History
St Anne’s Church is a Church of England parish church in Catterick, United Kingdom, begun in 1412 and consecrated in 1415 as a Gothic Perpendicular building. It remains an active church in the parish of Catterick with Tunstall, within the Diocese of Leeds, the Archdeaconry of Richmond and Craven, and the Deanery of Richmond.
Early Christian worship
Christian worship at Catterick is believed to date from the seventh century. St Paulinus, a seventh-century missionary and bishop associated with the conversion of communities in northern England, was traditionally connected with the baptism of converts in the River Swale near Catterick Bridge. The Venerable Bede, the eighth-century monk and historian, recorded a church in the area. The Northumbrian kings Æthelwald Moll and Æthelred I were also married at Catterick.
A church at Catterick appears in the Domesday Book, the late eleventh-century survey of landholding and resources ordered by William the Conqueror. That building stood slightly farther north than the present church. Vicars of St Anne’s are recorded from 1215, about two centuries before the existing building was completed.
The fifteenth-century foundation
The present church was commissioned by Dame Katherine de Brugh and her son William. William became a patron after the death of his father, John de Burgh of Catterick. A contract dated 18 April 1412 appointed the stonemason Richard of Cracall to construct the church by the Feast of Saint John the Baptist in 1415, allowing for delay if war or pestilence made the deadline impossible.
This contract is among the oldest surviving building contracts written in English. Its northern English dialect offers evidence for the language used in the region during the early fifteenth century. The agreement gave Richard of Cracall some freedom in the work while identifying particular requirements, including the reuse of a window from the earlier church and the preparation of the western end for a tower to be built later.
The first building consisted of a nave, chancel, and north and south aisles. The vestry, porches, and tower were added later in the fifteenth century and may also have been made by Richard of Cracall. William de Burgh died in 1442 and was buried in the eastern part of the north aisle. His grandson, also named William, extended the aisle and founded the Chantry of St James, a chapel or endowed foundation for prayers and services for particular people. Two further chantry chapels were added later in the century for members of the de Burgh family.
Later use and historical associations
The church suffered damage from cannon fire during the First English Civil War and from German bombing during the Second World War. In 1658, the Reverend Michael Syddall endowed a hospital and school through an annual investment of £45. The institution operated from 1685 until 1974, and a later local Church of England primary school bears Syddall’s name.
Alexander John Scott became vicar in 1816 and held the office until his death in 1840. He had formerly served as chaplain to Horatio Nelson and was aboard HMS Victory when Nelson was fatally wounded. Scott administered Nelson’s last rites.
Restoration and refurbishment under Atkinsons of York took place in 1851. The work included standardizing the pews and replacing the doors. Further redesign followed under the architect C. G. Wray, including alterations to the clerestory, the upper row of windows above the aisle roofs. The church reopened in April 1872.
Modern religious and military history
The Royal Air Force Regiment, the ground-combat branch of the Royal Air Force responsible for protecting air bases and air operations, had its home depot at nearby RAF Catterick from 1946 to 1994. During the regiment’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations in 1992, Queen Elizabeth II presented it with a new colour, a ceremonial military flag. The former colour was laid up in the church’s RAF Regiment Chapel, where it remains preserved. Although the regiment later moved to RAF Honington, the chapel continues as its home chapel.
St Anne’s Church became a Grade I listed building in 1969. Its eighteenth-century northern gateposts were separately listed at Grade II in 1987, and the church and its surroundings form part of the Catterick Village Conservation Area. In 2018, the church faced an annual funding shortfall of £10,000 and appealed for local support to remain open.
Remains
St Anne’s stands on Church Green in Catterick village. Its surviving fabric is Gothic Perpendicular and incorporates stones from an earlier church on the same site. The original fifteenth-century building measured about 55 feet by 22 feet, or 17 by 6.7 metres, and comprised a nave, chancel, north aisle, and south aisle. Each aisle was later extended by one arch beyond the length specified in the 1412 contract.
Medieval structure and evidence
Tower and earlier fabric
The vestry, porches, and tower belong to later fifteenth-century additions. The tower rises approximately 57 feet, or 17 metres, from ground level to its top. Although the 1412 contract did not include the tower, it required stones at the western end to allow a steeple to be constructed later. A window from the earlier church was intended for the new east window of the north aisle. Part of an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft survives in the west wall of that aisle, while other cross fragments found during archaeological investigation in the 1920s are held by the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.
Chantry chapels
The Chantry of St James occupies the extension made to the north aisle by William de Burgh’s grandson. Two additional chantry chapels were added later in the fifteenth century for burials of the de Burgh family. Their presence reflects the continuing connection between the church’s medieval extensions and the family that helped establish its present building.
Baptismal font
The octagonal baptismal font was carved soon after the 1412 contract. A font is the basin used for Christian baptism. The bowl carries the coats of arms of the de Burgh, Scroop, Neville, Fitzhugh, and Lascelles families. It was once thought to be made from grey or black marble, but later assessment identified the material as highly polished black limestone.
Memorials and stained glass
Monuments and sundial
The interior contains plaques, brasses, and monuments to the dead, including an effigy of Sir Walter Urswick. A brass is a memorial inscription or figure engraved on a metal plate. Urswick fought for the Black Prince, Edward of Woodstock, at the Battle of Nájera in 1367, a conflict within the Castilian civil war, and later served as Constable of Richmond Castle in 1371.
A sundial is set above the porch door. It probably dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century and bears the Latin inscription “Fugit hora, ora,” meaning “Time flies, pray.”
Windows
The east window contains William Wailes’s depiction of the Last Supper, installed in 1862. Other stained-glass windows were made by Charles Eamer Kempe and installed in 1896 and 1900.
RAF Regiment Chapel and churchyard
RAF memorial chapel
A section on the north side forms the RAF Regiment Chapel. Its north-facing stained-glass window commemorates personnel who died while serving in the regiment. The side panes contain memorial text and display the badges of RAF Catterick and the RAF Regiment. The chapel also preserves the regiment’s former colour, deposited there as a permanent commemorative memorial.
War graves and squadron memorials
The churchyard contains graves from both world wars, including many Royal Air Force personnel who died during the Second World War. A survey in 1994 recorded 127 graves, several with inscriptions weathered beyond legibility. The north wall carries a memorial to No. 26 Squadron RAF and No. 41 Squadron RAF, both based at RAF Catterick during the Second World War.
Northern entrance
The northern gateposts date from the eighteenth century and form a separately listed part of the church’s historic setting.
