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I Location

II General Description

Birstall church stands in a large churchyard on sloping ground. That there was a good late medieval church is witnessed by the preserved carved pew-ends kept in the church. It was completely rebuilt 1863-70 except for the W tower, the lower part of which is 12thc. and much restored (Ryder 1993). That has small windows to N and S. In all parts the fabric is of yellowish gritstone. The tower arch is recut but probably the old build. Otherwise, our period is represented by fragments. There is most of a grave-marker or small coffin lid with lozenge pattern and a patterned font, which has been broken in two.

III Exterior Features

2. Windows

(i) Tower

Two windows on the N and S faces of the tower. One source says 'three' show. The two seen had no facings to the narrow opening, and a simple one-piece windowhead. They are at the 'first floor' level.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

b. Tower/Transept arches

(i) Tower arch

The tower is enclosed by the 19thc. church (III.2.i). The tower arch has been recut all over, but retains an imposing simplicity. Plinths: plain and chamfered. Jambs: plain and square (width of reveal of first order 0.705m). There are has two plain orders to the arch, and plain and chamfered impost.

Dimensions

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

This was found in two pieces in an adjoining orchard in 1899 (Cradock), and is now located in the SE corner of the S aisle. It is entirely ignored by Pevsner. The font is cylindrical on a square base, simple lugs making up the corners. The bottom of the cylinder has two overhanging rows of 'fishscale' pattern, then two rows of half-round moulding. Most of the cylinder is plain, except for tooling. There being no lead hiding the rim, it can be seen to have (truly) circular grooves developed into three slightly rounded moulded rings. The appearance given of a cable moulding in the photograph was not noticable on site. The accuracy of the horizontal circles on the rim contrasts with the profile of the drum, which has vertical sides at the mid point of the slab, but slopes slightly inward above the lugs on the corners. Inside, an approximately flat-bottomed bowl with a central hole of irregular form. See Comments.

Dimensions

2. Tombs/Graveslabs

(i) Coffin slab or grave marker

Located in the SE corner of the S aisle. Slightly coped. It would be small for a coffin, possibly for a child would have been commemorated in those days or in this place. The pattern seems to have been cut without the aid of an overall grid of guidelines having been drawn (compare a pattern on a tympanum at Condicote, Gloucs). The pattern was developed piecemeal, perhaps by someone who had made individual voussoirs with a saltire pattern (compare Beeston). Diagonal tooling is visible on the three unbroken sides. See Comments.

Dimensions

4. Other

(i) Stoups

There are two water-stoups located in the SE corner of the S aisle, which may be Romanesque or reworked. One is square in section with slightly chamfered angles. The other stoup has been cut out with lugs at top and bottom on the angles.

Dimensions

VII History

There is a nice Anglo-Saxon cross-base. Ryder says church completely rebuilt 1863-70 except for the W tower. Nothing much known of the intervening church or history.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Font: This font closely resembles that at Kirkby Malham (30 miles NW).

Slab: Collingwood illustrates the slab, saying 'the work can hardly be pre-Conquest, though [it] shows the survival of one form of earlier art; at any rate, this cutting seems to indicate the transition from Anglo-Saxon work to Norman.' It dates late 12thc. according to Pevsner, but this is unlikely - the pattern and the workmanship are more likely to belong to the early part of the century.

IX Bibliography