St Helen's Church, Skipwith, North Yorkshire

Abstract

Skipwith church's west tower, of ‘pre-Norman’, ‘Saxo-Norman’ or ‘early Romanesque’ style, has been the focus of a campaign of investigation and analysis which included structural recording and archaeological excavation. A building earlier than this tower was identified; within and around it were burials, some in iron-bracketed wooden coffins, and a piece of newly discovered early ninth-century sculpture confirms the contemporary importance of this site. This building was replaced by a church incorporating the standing tower; hitherto unrecognized details of its construction are reported, together with its subsequent structural evolution. Attention is drawn to an extensive series of cross slabs and to a considerable quantity of painted alabaster fragments representing one or more altarpieces.