Kirkby Fleetham church restoration day offers unique access

The day marks the end of an £11,500 project to restore the wooden floor in Kirkby Fleetham church, which was so riddled with wet rot and woodworm that it could not bear the weight of worshippers, and the launch of a new effort to raise £100,000 to tackle the church’s other issues, like the leaky roof and “rust jacking” which is causing some stones to explode.

St Mary’s Church and Kirkby Fleetham Hall in North Yorkshire (Image: Unknown)

Kirkby Fleetham is in the well watered lands to the west of Northallerton and the south-east of Catterick Village.

Kirkby Fleetham Hall and church in their secluded dingly dell (Image: Unknown)

Once there were two villages here: Fleetham, which, like Darlington FC’s former ground, gets its name from the watery nature of the land, and Kirkby – a settlement with a church. Fleetham was a Saxon place with a motte and bailey castle, and Kirkby, which had a wooden church in a wooded dell, was a Viking settlement of Danes.

The remains of the motte and bailey castle at Fleetham, built in 1314 by Sir Henry le Scrope, with a moat around it and perhaps seven towers (Image: Chris Lloyd)

The two communities rubbed on along together peacefully, and in the 12th Century, the villagers of Kirkby rebuilt their church in stone next to their manor house and it became the focal point of the area.

However, a calamity befell the villagers of Kirkby. Some historians note how the church tower is remarkably robust as if it has been strengthened to keep out rampaging Scots; others note the Black Death wiped out many northern villages around 1350.

Either way, the villagers of Kirkby were either driven out of their dell or were killed in it.

Their village died, leaving only the church with the manor house beside it, while everyone else was living in Fleetham, next to the castle mound about a mile away.

Sir Nicholas Stapleton, who died in 1290, lying with a lion at his feet in Kirkby Fleetham church (Image: Steve Hill)

One of the church’s finest treasures is an immaculate effigy of Sir Nicholas Stapleton, who died in 1290 and now sleeps in stone, still wearing his armour with a lion at his feet that has been carved by someone who never saw the king of the jungle on a high definition television set.

Sir Nicholas, a Knight Templar and a powerful judge on the King’s Bench, owned 16 estates across Yorkshire – including the village near Darlington from which his family got its surname – and his son, Sir Miles Stapleton, would be pardoned for his role in the murder of Edward II’s favourite, Piers Gaveston, in 1313 only to die in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

The fortunes of the church were inextricably bound to the owner of the adjacent manor house.

Kirkby Fleetham Hall, which is hosting a local history day on September 19 (Image: Unknown)

The rear of Kirkby Fleetham Hall, which was built on top of an older manor house between 1740 and 1760 (Image: Unknown)

In 1724, the estate was bought for £23,000 (about £4.5m in today’s values, according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator) by John Aislabie, of Studley Royal at Ripon.

Aislabie had just had his political career destroyed by the South Sea Bubble: as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had been responsible for passing legislation which puffed up the value of shares in the South Sea Company and when the price collapsed, he was accused of corruption.

The MP for Ripon was forced out of No 11, thrown out of the House of Commons and banned from holding public office ever again. So instead, he devoted his energies to his Yorkshire estates.

With his son, William, he created the extraordinary water gardens at Studley Royal which are now part of the Fountains Abbey world heritage site.

St Mary's Church and Kirkby Fleetham Hall today (Image: Steve Hill)

John bought the delightful dell for William who, between 1740 and 1760, transformed it, building today’s Grade II* listed building on top of the old manor house – its cellars may survive along with an early staircase. William also laid out the parklands, using the watery nature of the area to create an artificial lake.

It is in a marquee in his grounds that the day on September 19 is being held.

Visitors will be able to walk round the beautiful gardens and there will be guided tours of the church and graveyard.

St Mary's Church, Kirkby Fleetham: Mr R Pearson lost his life while trimming the ivy that used to climb the tower, and a greedy cat chasing birds also fell to its death from it (Image: Chris Lloyd)

There will be a history display in the Lady Chapel so people will be able to test out the new floor, and there will be presentations in the marquee: pupils from Richmond School will tell about the Knights Templar and the Stapleton family; the village local history society will delve into the past of the hall and look at how it is connected to other listed properties in Fleetham, while Chris Lloyd, who compiles this column, will give a talk of extremely tall stories (although one will be very titchy) about crabs, cats and elephants connected to the village, plus advice on how to trim the ivy on your church steeple without plunging to your death.

St Mary’s Church in Kirkby Fleetham, in the 1960s. Its floor has been repaired after it was attacked by wet rot and woodworm (Image: Unknown)

The day, which runs from 10am to 3pm, includes a buffet lunch and afternoon tea, plus the use of “luxury” portable toilets, is free although donations to the restoration fund will be greatly appreciated – a £15-a-head gift is suggested. To book tickets, which will be given on a “first come first served” basis, please e-mail Joy Kerin at francis.kerin@btinternet.com who will provide all the necessary details.