All Hallows Church
Goodmanham
All Hallows Church stands upon a site held sacred since the days of the worship of the old gods, and which has been a place of settlement from the time of Stone Age immigration. Goodmanham lies on a favourable position on a south facing slope, on the spur of the chalk wolds between two streams, with fresh springs and ample material to build dwellings. There are many ancient burial sites - "tumuli" - and the boundaries follow the lines of ancient earthworks. The western boundary is one of the oldest roads in the country, which now ends at the bridge over the stream. It was in early times a British trade route from the north through Malton to Brough on the Humber, which the Romans adopted during their occupation.
The Venerable Bede, writing in A.D. 731 the History of the English Church and Nation, tells of what happened here a hundred years before, when Coifi the high priest of the kingdom and guardian of this sacred place was the first to reject the old religion and embrace the Christian Faith.
Goodmanham was the high shrine of Northumbria when in A.D. 625 Edwin became king, ruling from the Humber river to the Firth of Forth, from the North Sea to the Isle of Man, and overlord - "The BretwaIda" - of all the kingdoms of Britain except Kent. With Kent he made an alliance, cementing it by marrying princess Ethelburga, who agreed to be his queen on condition that she, a Christian woman, might bring with her Paulinus, her chaplain, and that he would be free to practice and preach the religion of the Christ.
For two years, a young man of wisdom and ability, was undecided whether he should adopt the faith of his queen. Three events led him to a decision; firstly, an attempt by an envoy to stab him to death, foiled by a friend at the cost of his own life who rushed to receive the blow; second, a victory in battle, and third, the birth of a daughter. The time was determined by what occurred here.
Edwin called his counsellors to his hall at Londesborough, two miles away, at the spring full moon, to deliberate the matter of this new religion, and called upon Paulinus to tell the assembly the elements of the Faith which we believe and on which we have taken our stand. Paulinus spoke simply "... there is an eternal purpose in Creation ... Mankind has a special value in the sight of the Creator ... the Christ came into his own world … his crucifixion was a sacrifice ... he is our reconciliation ... the truth ... our hope of resurrection like his ... always present with his disciples ..."
When he sat down, an aged priest, whose name we shall never know, stood up in the body of the hall, to say that this which Paulinus had told answered his need to know whence he came, what his life was for, and what he might hope for after death. He likened the existence of a man to the flight of a sparrow on the dark night of a winter storm. who comes in through the door, warms himself for a brief moment, and flies out again, we know not where.
It was the high priest, Coifi himself, who made the decision. "I have known long since" he said, "that there is nothing in this religion we have professed ...the more I sought for truth in it, the less I found ...this can give us life, salvation, and eternal happiness ... I advise that we now burn the useless sanctuary – and who better than myself, as an example?
So saying. he borrowed a war stallion, and a war axe - both of which were forbidden to him as a priest - galloping to the sanctuary, and flung the weapon into the holy place. Seeing that no ill befell him, the company which followed him demolished the shrine, put fire to it, and burned it to the ground.
A few days afterward the king, with Ethelburga, Paulinus, and the council, left for York. A local tradition says that at Pocklington, coming to the river, Edwin asked to be baptized, whether it was there or at York, Edwin was baptized into the Christian Church on Easter day. He gave to Paulinus part of the site of the Roman headquarters which they had vacated two hundred years before, and there a wooden church was built. It was replaced with a stone church a few years after, and eventually, upon the very site, York Minster was built.
What happened subsequently at Goodmanham we do not know. Pope Gregory in A.D. 601 had laid down the policy that upon the site of a former pagan shrine a Christian church was to be provided, "so that the people of the land, acknowledging the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the place to which they have been accustomed. In view of the importance of the shrine at Goodmanham, it is very likely that a church was erected here.
The first conversion of the English had a short life and a brutal end. After seven years Penda, king of the Mercians and Cadwallon king of the Britons, made an alliance to attack Northumbria. Edwin was killed, Ethelburga and Paulinus fled to Kent with the children and Cadwallon's army ravaged Northumbria, burning and killing, as many other armies have done, before and since.
After two years Oswald came from the island of Iona to be king of Northumbria. With a small force he defeated Cadwallon near Hexham, and ruled for nine years. It was he who sent for the Celtic missionaries, to win back the kingdom for the Christ.
Nothing more is recorded about Goodmanham until the Conquest. The Doomsday Book contains information for taxation purposes about land, ploughs and serving men. A few names of resident farmers are given; Colgri, Orm, Norman, William de Coleville; but where they farmed we do not know.
The church was built about the year 1130, comprising the nave and a small chancel. Traces of the west entrance can be seen at either side of the tower arch (the arch was made later - about 1328) and the other entrance was the south door. A few years later the first two stages of the tower were added to the nave, and a west doorway was provided, which was later filled in when a buttress was erected.
In 1200 the nave was enlarged by the addition of the north aisle; the wall was pierced by the arcade of three semi-circular arches with cylindrical columns, and thirty years afterwards the chancel was rebuilt, extending further to the east, with lancet windows and two priests' doors on the south side, one of which was later filled in.
The Archbishop of York in 1328, at the request of Sir Roger de Grimston, patron of the church, appointed a commission for the rebuilding and repair of the church. The square headed windows of the nave and the tower arch were put in. This was in the year following the end of the disastrous reign of Edward the Second, when, after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 there were frequent raids by Scottish troops into the north of England, especially at harvest time. On one occasion Scarborough, Northallerton, Boroughbridge and Skipton were all burnt. Eighty four villages were excused payments of taxes because they were utterly ruined. To complete the picture, 1315 and 1316 were years of continuous rain; corn failed to ripen; there was famine, unemployment, and cattle disease. We could not expect Goodmanham to escape the disasters.
The new font was presented by the rector, Robert Clevyng and the Clerk, Robert Appleton in 1530. Although its design and ornamentation is out of keeping with the rest of the building, it is worth examination.
The upper inscription reads:
WYTH OWT BAPTYSM NO SOUL MA BE SAVED. OF YOUR CHARETE PRA FOR THEM YT YIS FON MAYD ROBERT CLEVYNG PARSON ROBERT APPELLTON.
The lower inscription reads:
AVE MARIA GRA PLENA DNS TECU BN DICTA TU IN MULIERIBUS - (Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed are thou among women).
Below are the armorial shields; IHS. Grimston. XRS. York. St. William of York. LADE HELP. Thirkeld.
The old font was given away at this time, and in 1850, it was discovered in a farmyard by the rector of Hotham and restored to the church. The lip has been worn away during the three hundred years of its use as a drinking trough. The sockets may still be seen where the padlock hung to keep the font cover in place over the Baptism water, which was renewed only once a year at Whit. This font appears to be older than the earliest part of the church, and a date, which has yet to be verified by experiment, is given as ninth century. If so it indicates that there was a Saxon church on this site.
Some items of note;
The chancel arch is only seven feet across. Some have suggested that the weight of stone above has caused it to spread at the top, but this would not explain why the stone courses and the adjacent corners remain vertical! This arch, like the south doorway, has chevron ornament and scalloped capitals; the fish bone and scale motif is worth attention.
Masons' marks on the jambs of the north chancel windows are not very distinct, but those on some of the stones of the nave pillars can be clearly seen - fashioned like a capital "N" - the trade mark of one of the masons, who were paid on a "Piece work" basis.
Post holes on opposite faces of the chancel arch indicate that the chancel could be partitioned off from the nave. In earlier days there would be no pews, and the nave was the place for the magistrates' courts, other, gatherings of the parish and for the school. Cuts in the stone of the south door were made by children sharpening their iron writing tools, when clay tablets were used instead of exercise books.
The small window high in the south west comer is the only original one left in the nave. A small aperture, hardly noticeable from outside, would require little glass, which was expensive. It could be covered against rough weather by oiled linen or cow horn, yet the interior, being splayed diffuses a great deal of light. The windows are of good modern glass; the chancel arch from left to right they show; Martin Grimston. one of the many rectors from the Grimston family, St. Michael, Paulinus, the Crucifixion, the Venerable Bede, James the Deacon of York, King Edwin, the queen Ethelburga and Coifi the high priest of Goodmanham. Proceeding to the nave we see St. Stephen, a war memorial, St. Peter and St. Mark.
Two of the three bells date from 1500. The step ladder to the belfry was erected in 1675. A small doorway in the North West corner of the vestry has been filled in at some early date; one large stone with fish scale ornament might well be the badly done homework of a young apprentice mason!
