Trail-blazing bid to promote Wolds churches

An example of what a small but active congregation can achieve, St Andrew’s church at Kirby Grindalythe is one of 10 churches on a new trail, aiming to promote their heritage to new visitors.

The church has Saxon origins, but was restored in the 1870s by Sir Tatton Sykes, who hired GE Street, the architect of the Law Courts on the Strand in London. Sir Tatton, who financed work on 17 rural churches, including eight in the trail, is considered perhaps the greatest church builder of the 19th century.

St Andrew’s has a prominent spire and a “startling” Roman mosaic covering the whole of the west wall of the nave, which people “either love or dislike”.

Historian Dr David Neave said: “It is a very small village and a few years ago the church was going to be made redundant, but through the encouragement of the East Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust the community decided they wanted to keep the building and with the help of (chairman) Cathy Otton-Goulder they raised the funding for the restoration of the building from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery and turned the church round.

“The leaflets are funded by (the European funding programme for rural development) Leader and they are to encourage people to visit the historic churches of East Yorkshire and to appreciate them as they are the most accessible parts of our heritage.

“They tell so much about the history of their community and often contain great works of art and architecture.”

The Sykes Churches Trail – Northern Route starts at the grandest of the Sykes churches, St Mary’s in Sledmere.

Half are open daily. Keys are available to see the rest.