St Mary's Church, Cowlam
St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in Cowlam, a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in England.
The church was built in the 12th century.[1] It was largely rebuilt in 1852, part of a group of churches with work funded by Tatton Sykes. Uniquely, it was designed by his daughter, Mary Sykes. The building was grade II listed in 1966.[2] It was long thought to date entirely from the 19th century, but in 2004 the discovery of a fragment of a mediaeval wall painting suggested it had instead been substantially altered.[1] Access to the church is through a working farm and in 2017 it was threatened with closure. By 2026 it was in need of major repairs, but still hosted a monthly church service.[3][4]
The church is built of sandstone with a Welsh slate roof. It consists of a nave, a south porch and a chancel with a north vestry. At the west end are angle buttresses, and a lancet window with a moulded hood mould, above which is a quatrefoil, and on the gable is a bellcote with ogeed trefoil openings, surmounted by a cross. Inside, there is a Norman tub font with rich but crude carving, and a marble wall tablet carved by Francis Leggatt Chantrey.[2][5]
See also
References
- 1 2 "St Mary, Cowlam, Yorkshire, East Riding". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- 1 2 Historic England. "Church of Saint Mary, Cottom (1083789)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
- ↑ Scott-Holm, Charis (24 June 2026). "The hidden farmyard church and fight to save it". BBC News. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- ↑ Hall, Deborah (5 July 2025). "The (almost) one-woman bid to keep a little church in an East Yorkshire farmyard open". Hull Daily Mail. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Neave, David (1995) [1972]. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding. The Buildings of England (2 ed.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09593-7.