St Edmund’s church in Marske

Listen to the church bells whilst reading this.

St Edmunds, Marske.  Saxon origins.

The church today in Marske consists of a nave, chancel, north aisle and churchyard cemetery.  The cemetery also extends onto a second piece of consecrated ground around 100m north. 

The church in Marske has Saxon origins and is dedicated to St Edmund, who was a Saxon King and Saint put to death by the Danes in AD 870¹. The maps below show the evolution of the church buildings from 1732 until 1950 (swipe right to see the next map). The circular area in front of the church, which is prominent in the eigthteenth and nineteenth century maps, and less so thereafter, is potentially evidence of an earlier Saxon church on the site of the current church.

It is known that the bones of St Cuthbert rested in Marske for a time during the period when the monks were protecting them from the Danes who had sacked the abbey at Lindisfarne in AD 793.  The saint’s bones were later put to rest at Chester-le-Street, and finally in Durham Cathedral^1,3,4.

St Edmunds, Marske.  Norman beginnings.

As noted above there is good evidence for an earlier church in Marske, however the present one was founded in AD 1090¹.  The twelfth century Norman origins of the church are most evident today in the south door, but also in the now blocked door on the north side of the church, and in the hexagonal pillars in the nave.  A recess in the north aisle, which has a pointed stone tracery arch and is carved from one block of stone, may be from the original chancery east window^1,5.  The double bellcote may also be Norman^6,7.  The western side of the bellcote shows that the roof of the main aisle was previously at a steeper angle than it is today.   

There are also records of a Norman (or earlier) cross by Marske church (including on the maps above).  It is possible that either the square stone base of the font, or the square stone base of the 1914-1918 War Memorial are the remains of this earlier cross^1,5.

Documents record the church rectors from 1225^6,1.    

Seventeenth century:  a church neglected.

Little except the names of the clergy is known until the time of Matthew Hutton (1529-1606), who was Archbishop of York.  Matthew, who during his lifetime accumulated wealth, bought the Marske estate and hall for his son Timothy Hutton (1569-1629) in 1597. The parish registers also start from the same date.  There is no record of the Hutton family building a chapel in the hall¹.  There is a magnificent memorial to Timothy Hutton, his wife Elizabeth, and family in Richmond Parish Church.

.. the family produced two archbishops of York, and one of Canterbury ..

The subsequent history of both the Church and the village is closely linked to the Hutton family.  The Hutton family had the right to approve the appointment of each rector, and many of the early rectors were relatives.  The church contains many memorials to the Hutton family.  A second Hutton Archbishop 150 years later, also Matthew Hutton (1693 to 1758), was Archbishop of York and then Canterbury – see he was John Hutton II’s brother¹.  

However, these links between the family and the church did not seem to favour the maintenance of the building.  In 1633 the “Metropolitan Visitation” of the province of York found the churchwardens guilty of neglect.  At this time Archbishop Matthew’s grandson, also Matthew(1597-1666), was the inheritor of the estate.  The seats were unfit, the floor unpaved and strewn occasionally with rushes, and the churchyard unwalled.  It was short of religious books, and had no pewter for the communion wine.  The Ecclesiastical authorities in York were not inclined to put up with this ill-discipline and disorder (the note in the church records that the reprimand was from the Bishop of Chester⁸).  At the time Richmond was in the diocese of Chester, and presumably also under the wings of York as well. 

.. The Metropolitan Visitation found the church wardens guilty of neglect ..

Hence in 1634 the rector, Mr Jackson, reported back to York that new seats and paving was installed and other improvements were in hand⁶. 

Over the fifty years from 1634 the church continued to be re-fettled.  The church was probably re-roofed⁶, and the northern arcade and chancel arch reconstructed^5,7.  A new font was provided by Matthew’s brother Timothy.  After Matthew’s death, John Hutton (1659-1731) added two windows to the south aisle in 1683, and a sundial was installed (see photograph below).  The windows bear the dedication “John Hutton, Squir. 1683”. 

Raine, a nineteenth century cleric and author with a good knowledge of the Hutton family and Marske, felt that everything that was done to the church in the seventeenth century created injury.  In his view the font was coarse, and the windows were so rudely done that they must have been put up by “some village mason”⁶.

In line with the criticisms of the “Metropolitan Visitation”, as well as improving the building, new church silverware was also provided during the mid-seventeenth century.  The oldest piece of church silverware is a plate for holding communion wafers, called a paten.  This paten is now in Ripon Cathedral (see photo below).  An inscription on its base reads “Jere. [Jeremy] Mason, born in the parish of Marske, July ye 20.  Anno Dom. 1642.  On the face of the paten is an inscription which is a Mason family coat of arms.  There can be no doubt that the paten is identified with Marske as the parish registers for 1642 record a Jeremy Mason being born to a George Mason and baptised on 31 July that year.  The puzzle is who were the Mason family, and what led to their names and crests being inscribed onto the paten?  They were not known to be a prominent local family; neither were they connected to the church.  Is it a coincidence that the year of the inscription was also the first year of the English Civil War?

The second piece of surviving church silver is a chalice from 1665.  This was given to the church by Matthew a year before his death¹.  The inscription reads “For Marske church, 1665.  Cost £2 1s 0d”.  Did he forget to take the price tag off?

A rectory was built in 1755 by the then rector Richard Horne at a cost of £185.  It also housed a preparatory school for Richmond Grammar School.  The Rectory and Church both feature in the painting of Marske by George Cuit the elder from around 1800 (see also here)¹.

Despite all of this the Huttons must have been comfortable with the church, as the second, third and fourth John Huttons are all buried under the Church floor.  There is a memorial to the fourth John Hutton (1774-1841) on the north wall of the sanctuary¹.

Nineteenth century:  another reprimand

It seems that it was not until the time of the fourth John Hutton (1774-1841) that anything more was done to the Church.  Again, a diocesan reprimand spurred on works, this time in 1822.  In 1823 John Hutton rebuilt the chancel entirely⁹, and put in the box pews on top of the graves of his father and grandfather.  John also added the porch and the crenelation around the roof¹.  The pulpit dates from the early nineteenth century⁷.

The box pews are unusual although not their construction is not elaborate.  There are 21 pews in total, and they include a larger pew for the squire in the north aisle.  In 1840 nine of the pews were reserved for those from Clints – intriguingly whilst Clints Hall was in the ownership of the catholic Errington family.  (The Huttons bought Clints Hall in 1842 and demolished it shortly thereafter.)

A piece of old roofing material in the church dating from 1868 records both the re-roofing of the church at that time, and the continued connections between the catholic Errington family (previously of Clints), and the Huttons.

In 1896 the present East window was given in memory of Colonel John Cameron who rented the Hall from the Huttons at this time.  Cameron was clearly very fond of the church, and of Marske, and had drawn up plans to modernise the church again.  His drawings are shown below.

Twentieth century

At the beginning of the twentieth century the bellcote only housed one bell.  A second bell was donated by a family descending from Marske in 1988¹⁰.  

The Marske estate was sold off by the Hutton family in the 1960s.  In 1966 two nineteenth century (Georgian) silver candlesticks were given to the church in 1966 in memory of Mrs Hilda D’Arcy Sykes (nee Hutton) who was a daughter of the (John) Timothy D’Arcy Hutton II (1847-1931).  These candlesticks are now deposited in Ripon Cathedral¹.  As candlesticks they are not unique, and silversmiths in Sheffield in the early nineteenth century had produced many similar items.  Perhaps they spent their early life in one of the Hutton houses in North Yorkshire, such as at Aldburgh near Masham.  A curious inscription decorates the base of each candlestick: an unferocious-looking cat resting calmly on an anchor.  If you have any idea as to what this represents do please get in touch.

A false ceiling was installed in the main aisle of the church in the 1960s in an attempt to make the church easier to heat. Many who signed the church visitor’s books at the time regretted this change.  The organ loft was constructed in 2000.  The church was redecorated at the same time.

Today

If you do visit the church please do sign the visitors book, and leave a donation if you are able to.  Wi-fi and a “click and donate” machine was installed in 2023. Much of the material in this page is taken from a note for visitors to the church which was produced in April 1992, and then reprinted on 1/10/04¹.

Visiting the graveyard

The church’s original graveyard is adjacent to the church.  A photographic record of many of the gravestones in Marske, including some transcripts of the inscriptions, is to be found on the dalesgenology website¹¹. A second graveyard, north of the rectory, was consecrated in 1897 (see also Cameron Window page).

Return to History pages

1. Local contributor 1:  Information sheet in church on history.  2004.[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Gainford, F. 1732. Map Mannour of Marske. North Yorkshire County Record Office Ref ZAZ.[↩]
3. Wikipedia.  Cuthbert.  Accessed 2023.[↩]
4. Raine, J.  1828.  St Cuthbert: with an Account of the State in which his Remains were found on the opening of his Tomb.  Durham.  Retrieved from books.google.com.[↩]
5. Hatcher, Jane.  1999.  Richmondshire Architecture.[↩][↩][↩]
6. Raine, James.  1881.  Marske in Swaledale.  Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association Journal, Vol VI.[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
7. Grenville, J. and Pevsner, N.,  2002.  The Buildings of England,  Yorkshire:  The North Riding.[↩][↩][↩]
8. Local contributor 1:  Information sheet in church on history.  2004.[↩]
9. Victoria County History (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol1).  Various sections in North Riding, Volume 1, including The honour and castle of Richmond.  Parishes of Marske, Kirby Ravensworth, Arkengarthdale, Barningham.  Accessed 2023.  Published 1914.[↩]
10. St Edmund’s Church, Marske. Brass plaque on west wall of church. 1988.[↩]
11. Dalesgeneology. Spensleys of the Yorkshire Dales and Dales family information. Marske gravestones. Accessed 2023.[↩]