Churches in need: Auction of ancient artefacts as part of £20m campaign to save Beverley Minster & St Mary’s
‘FINEST IN THE KINGDOM’: Beverley Minster, built in honour of St John of Beverley and visited by kings Edward I and Henry V, the latter to give thanks for victory in the Battle of Agincourt
By Simon Bristow
An auction of historic and ancient artefacts will take place in Beverley Minster on Saturday as part of a fundraising campaign to raise £20m to repair and preserve the Minster and its “daughter” church St Mary’s.
More than 200 items will go under the hammer – including nearly 100 dating back to the 12th century – in a sale expected to attract interest from as far afield as North America and Asia.
Local auctioneer Caroline Hawley – a regular presenter on TV’s Bargain Hunt – is organising the auction, including the valuation of lots by Hawley’s Auctioneers, which will take place in the South Transept and online.
Viewing of the sale items, many donated by local residents, is invited until 6pm today, and from 8am on auction day. They include ancient stone pinnacles dating back over 750 years, timber panels, ironwork, oak pews and a Victorian handcart.
‘WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY’LL FETCH?’: Auctioneer Caroline Hawley with one of the stone pinnacles
Organisers of the Two Churches One Town campaign, a charity, say they are in a “race against time” to achieve their fundraising target over the next ten years to prevent the churches falling into disrepair.
The “nightmare scenario”, they say, is the closure of both churches on safety grounds, which would not only deny congregants their place of worship but also threaten the vital economic impact 60,000 visitors a year have on the town.
Tim Carlisle, chairman of the Two Churches One Town charity, said: “We’ve got two gothic churches that are famous in Europe and considered to be the best of that build. What nobody wants is the nightmare scenario of having to close these buildings because they’re unsafe.
‘FOR MANY A PLACE OF UTTER BEAUTY’: St Mary’s Church in Beverley
“If we do nothing their survival is in danger. Over the next ten years we need to repair crumbling stonework, large failing stained-glass windows and leaking roofs, in addition to day-to-day maintenance.
“There is a wonderful film available on our website which illustrates the scale of the challenge and explains just how special Beverley and the two churches are.” You can watch the film here:
Matthew Slocombe, Director of the Society for the Protecction of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), who has visited Beverley, is featured in the documentary and underlines the significance of the town and the two churches, together with the work undertaken by the charity so far. It has already carried out over £5m of major repairs and renovation projects at St Mary’s and the Minster.
He said: “Beverley is such a wonderful place, a really fantastic historic town. The two churches are at the heart of everything. They dominate the town but they are also wonderful for visitors and everyone who lives there.
“It’s very often about the layering of history that makes a place special and Beverley’s got all of that – its interest from many periods, the ancient pattern of the streets, the positioning of the churches. The whole atmosphere and ambiance of the place was wonderful … These magnificent buildings should last for ever.”
‘THE SITUATION IS PRECARIOUS’: The Reverend Canon Jonathan Baker, Vicar of Beverley Minster
The Reverend Canon Jonathan Baker, Vicar of Beverley Minster, said: “Beverley Minster is the largest parish church in England. It’s bigger than quite a number of cathedrals. We are just an ordinary community – the same governance and resources as your local church at the end of the street – and yet we find ourselves custodians of this building of international importance.
“A place like this gives the impression of being very wealthy. It’s a magnificient building. The resources that were consumed in building it must have been fantastic. But actually, it’s the responibility of the local worshiping community. So the day-to-day operating costs of the Minster are a challenge. We have made some roles redundant, which increases pressure on staff who remain … we are not a well-resourced organisation and the situation is very precarious.”
Beverley, the county capital of East Yorkshire, was established over 13 centuries ago by a former Bishop of York who built a solitary monastery there to which he retired in 717. He was reported to have performed healing miracles.
‘MAGNIFICENT’: The interior of Beverley Minster
After his death in 721, visitors to his tomb subsequently reported similar miraculous cures. He was finally canonised in 1037 by Pope Benedict IX. St John spawned a cult following, a legacy of intense historical interest and a grand minster in his honour which is now the largest parish church in England.
Caroline Hawley said: “I’m so excited to be working on this auction to help secure the future of these two magnificent buildings in my home county.
“It’s remarkable to think that the oldest of the stone pinnacles dates back to the late 1200s when Edward I visited the Minster to establish a chantry in St John’s honour. Two-hundred years later they will have been there when blood and oil were said to have oozed out of the shrine of St John during the Battle of Agincourt. They stood guard, securing the roof, as Henry V and his Queen came to make their offerings in thanks for their victory.”
‘WE WANTED TO WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE TOWN’: The Reverend Becky Lumley, Vicar of St Mary’s
The ancient stones were part of the original fabric of the Minster of St John which housed the relics which reputedly produced miraculous cures in answer to the prayers of visiting pilgrims.
Caroline added: “It’s impossible to put a value on items like this – who knows what they will fetch at auction, especially if wealthy collectors from, say, the USA or Japan get into a bidding war. All I do know is that the recent replacement pinnacles cost more than £15,000 in materials and labour alone.”
Sir Simon Jenkins, former chair of the National Trust and author of England’s Thousand Best Churches, declared The Minster of St John and its close neighbour St Mary’s as his “two favourite churches”. Architectural historian Sir Alec Clifton-Taylor said that after Westminster Abby, Beverley Minster is the “finest non-cathedral church in the kingdom”.
‘THE TWO CHURCHES ARE AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING’: St Mary’s in the foreground looking towards the Minster
St Mary’s Church was established to the west of the town in the 12th Century as a Chapel of Ease to the alter of St Martin at Beverley Minster. After several extensions and rebuilding the tower after it collapsed, killing several parishioners in the process, it is regarded as one of the most beautiful parish churches in the country. Although its floor area is less than half that of the Minster, at 1,552 square metres, it still ranks as the eighteenth largest.
A stone carving of a pilgrim rabbit in St Mary’s, dating back over eight centuries, is reputed to have inspired the young Lewis Carol to create a character in his book Alice Through the Looking Glass.
The Reverend Becky Lumley, Vicar of St Mary’s, said: “For many of the congregation the building is a place of utter beauty. They love it and they cherish it. But the reality is that it’s also a huge responsibility because we don’t get funding from the Government or anyone else. All that keeps this building going is the volunteers and the people who are connected with this building.
“And we wanted to not oppose one another but to work together for the good of the whole town and the whole community. So the Two Churches One Town charity allows us to do that. It allows us to pool our resources, our skills and our wisdom, that’s been acquired over time, to make sure that neither building is overlooked or lost.”
More details of the campaign are available on its website.
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