THE CHURCH AT STAINTON

The present church is thought to have been built mainly during the twelfth century in the Norman style, but it has been suggested by a visiting expert on Saxon affairs that the graveyard is typical of that period, and that the arrangement of some of the corner stones follows the Saxon pattern.

The dedication is recorded in one of the early parish registers as to St. Winifrid but the Rev. H. R. Owen, an incumbent writing in 1909, suggested that this could be an error and that the original patron saint was St. Wilfrid. His reasoning was as follows: the feast day of Stainton is August 1st and it has always been customary to observe as feast day the feast of the patron saint of the church of the village.

The feast day of St. Winifrid is November 3rd, but August 1st is the festival of St. Peter ad Vincula, who together with St. Wilfrid (Bishop of York) was the patron saint of Ripon Cathedral. In this way August 1st could have been adopted as the Stainton feast day if the dedication had been to St. Wilfrid.

Miss D. A. V. Hogg was clearly interested in this matter, and entered into correspondence with some ecclesiastical historians privately. One suggested that the name of St. Winifrid was rarely found west of the Pennines until 1900. This was clearly a misprint for "east". Certainly St. Wilfrid's name is much more frequently encountered than St. Winifrid's in the east.

Against these arguments however, one must bear in mind that the St. Wilfrid theory demands both a change in name and a change in sex. St. Winifrid was a welsh lady of noble birth who is said to have disappointed Prince Caradoc in love. In his anger he severely wounded her - one version says that he beheaded her - but by a miracle her wound healed and she survived to become an Abbess. This miracle took place near a spring in North Wales at that place now called after it - Holywell. The Welsh for "White Spring" is gwyn frydan and the name of Winifrid is said to be a corruption of that.

How could the inhabitants of South Yorkshire be familiar with events in distant North Wales? In the first place, the Celtic component of the population of this area must have persisted for many generations after the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Elmet and there must have been frequent travellings on the road from Chester to Lincoln which passed through the area.

In 633 a Welsh prince, Cadwallon, had joined forces with the King of Mercia, Penda, and taken the area by conquest from Edwin of Northumbria, who had overrun Elmet a few years earlier. Clearly there were dealings with North Wales and there were racial associations between the Britons of Elmet and the Welsh. It would be quite natural for the early inhabitants of this district to learn of the miraculous restoration of St. Winifrid and to establish a church dedicated to her. If they did, however, It is likely that they did so long before the present building was erected - probably the building was a wooden structure. The fact that the Domesday only records one church on Dadesleia apparently does not exclude the possibility of a daughter church elsewhere in the area. Whatever the original dedication may have been, St. Winifrid is the current patroness of the church. The spelling varies as one may expect in a corruption of a Welsh word - one alternative used at Neston in Cheshire (on the opposite side of the river to Holywell) is Winefride, but there is no justification for correcting the spelling to Winifrid.

The Church Building

The present church has been appropriately described as 'an ancient church much restored'. The nave and chancel are Norman, and the South Chapel (Holme Hall quire) and tower were added in the 14th and 15th centuries. The restoration can be seen in the blocking of original doors and windows in the chancel and the insertion of a 19th century east window.

The South Chapel has its own piscine and must have had a small alter so that it could be used as a separate chapel. There is no evidence of any endowment but it has long been referred to as 'Holme Hall Quire'. There are remnants of some medieval glass in the window, including the arms of a forgotten family.

The tower includes the West Window in which are displayed the arms of Lord Scrope of Bolton, Lord of the Manor in the 15th and 16th century, quartered with those of the Tibetots.

The font is relatively recent, dating from the 17th century. At the visitation in 1582 the chancel was found to be in a state of decay, and the warden Robert Bellamy was taken to task. However, by May 21st 1583 the chancel was once more said to be in "a good state of reparation".

In 1615 a complaint was made against William Tomlinson and Thomas Justice 'for that they have not a Bible of the New Translation' (i.e. James Version). In 1793 Radwan Fretwell, gentleman, and Matthew Purslove, gentleman, were reprimanded for 'suffering ye chancel of ye Church to be out of repair, for not repairing the body of ye Church, being ruinous, nor exhibiting a copy of ye registers'. No doubt they soon rectified their defaults.

For Archbishop Herring's visitation in 1743, the vicar Nathaniel Pearson prepared a return as follows:

'1. Families 28 the better half of which by far are poor labouring people.
2. Licensed or other meeting house we have none
3. Public or charity school, none.
4. Children and servants are sent by our parishioners once a year, unto ye church to be catechised and instructed.
5. The sacrament of the Lords Supper is administered in our church three times every year, whereof Easter is one.'

In the year 1818 the Rev. Thomas Bosville of Ravenfield Park gave one chalice and one flagon of silver for use of the communicants in the parish. Sadly, during the night of 22nd July, 1883 the Communion plate consisting of one silver chalice, one silver flagon and one silver paten were stolen from the house of the Church Warden, Mr. C. D. Nicholson. They were replaced by the Rev. George Rolleston (although the silver paten was much smaller than the original) at a cost of 15 guineas raised by subscription.

In 1861 a single window in memory of the Toones of Lambcote Grange was inserted into the east end of the chancel.

In 1870 Mr. J. W. Pashley, a decendant of the family who had occupied Hall Farm, presented a black oak lectern to the church and this is still in use. In 1875, an American organ was purchased for £42 with monies collected by the incumbent, the Rev. C. W. Mainwaring, and a platform with choir stall was erected in the chancel. A further collection in 1893 provided a brass alms dish.

In 1898 a general restoration of the fabric of the church was undertaken at a cost of £1500 provided by subscriptions and a bazaar at Sandbeck Park, the seat of the Earl of Scarborough. The work included a new roof, a concrete floor with wood blocks, 2 new windows on the north side of the Nave and one on the south-west. The porch was dismantled and rebuilt, with the stones turned around so that the weathered surfaces faced inwards. A new alter rail was provided, and all the plaster was stripped from the inside revealing bare stones, which were then re-pointed.

A new pulpit was installed as a gift from Mr. Walker of Wilsic Hall, the doorwayfrom the north-west corner of the Nave was removed to the Manor House and the Rector's door in the chancel was walled up (against the wishes of the vicar).

Three new chancel lamps were provided by Miss White's school of Park Hill, and thirteen lamps for the Nave provided by the church wardens. A festal alter cloth was presented by Miss C. E. Firth.

On October 28th, the church was re-opened by the Archbishop of York, but the dedication of the new pulpit did not take place until December 9th and was carried out by the Bishop of Beverley.

In January 1906 the new vicar, the Rev. H. R. Owen, who wrote the first historical notes of the church, donated a brass alter cross and in May of the same year C. D. Nicholson Esq., of Stainton Manor, donated the oak reredos.

In the following year, 1907, a new organ costing £104 was purchased by public subscription and dedicated on March 27th by the Vicar.

Before the 1898 restoration, there was a heating stove with a rail around it in the vicinity of the Pashley Memorial. Although the removal of this was not mentioned in the records, it is likely that it was taken away at this time and a central heating system with a boiler in the cellar under the tower replaced it.

There is a dearth of records from 1914 until 1925, but there is no evidence in the church itself of any major change during those years.

In 1931, a fund was started to finance the building of a Parish Hall and in 1937 the money in this fund was transferred into a Building Society account. There it remained for 32 years, but in 1969 it was decided to inaugurate a Development Fund for the church, and it seemed appropriate to include the money for the Parish Hall in this fund. The surviving Trustees and donors were consulted and this was in fact done. After the closure of the school in 1982, the school annexe, which was a detachable and movable structure, was moved a few yards on to land formerly used as the Village Pound. This then became the Village Hall, but the money raised between 1931 and 1937 has already been spent in other ways. The Village Pound had been sold in 1969 by the Parish Council to the County Education Authority for £10 in order to extend the school playing area. The pound had been out of use for many years, but it was felt by some to have been an historic relic. Thanks to the diligence of Miss Hogg, however, its identity was never lost and upon the closure of the school, she was very quick to reclaim it for the village as the site for the new Village Hall.

The proceeds of the sale in 1969 were given to the church for the purchase of a seat for the churchyard.

In 1933 the Parochial Church Council resolved that the area of the churchyard should be extended. This could only be done by taking some of the adjoining pasture belonging to Lord Scarborough as part of Manor Farm. The necessary land was generously donated by his lordship for this purpose on the understanding that the P.C.C. should be responsible for walling the new area. This was eventually done at a cost of £65.

In 1939 the decision was made in principle to separate Hellaby from Stainton. The extension of Maltby towards Lillyhall had effectively divided the two parts of the parish, but the advent of the Second World War postponed the actual severance until 1955. 1939 also saw the retirement of one of the most remarkable incumbents of Stainton - Folliot Sandford, Archdeacon of Doncaster. For a few months his work was carried out by a priest-in-charge and the vicar of Tickhill, Rev. G. T. S. Cooke was appointed initially for the duration of the war, to conduct the services. In fact, Rev. G. T. S. Cooke, later an honorary Canon of Sheffield Cathedral, became vicar of Stainton in 1955 when the two parishes were united.