York Historic Environment Record

Parish room, incorporating minimal remains of the parish church of St Crux. 1888 re-using early C15 masonry. Magnesian limestone ashlar and rubble; tile roof with ashlar stack, stone copings and trefoil gable finials. PLAN: Rectangular. EXTERIOR: re-used west doors are panel-traceried in 4-centred moulded arch between single cinquefoiled windows: all have coved hoodmoulds, doorway with head stops, window stops foliate. Over door, square-headed window of paired cinquefoiled lights and flat hood. South side has four similar windows. Reset east window has cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery in 4-centred casement moulded surround. North wall incorporates masonry from former church, including broad chamfered plinth. Wall extends approximately 4 metres from north-west corner to rear of Nos 22 and 23 The Shambles (qv), forming south side of passage from The Shambles to Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate: blocked 4-centred doorway at west end beside small tomb recess beneath low 4-centred arch. INTERIOR: inner lobby formed by panelled screen surmounted by reset pedimented overdoor with pulvinated frieze and dated central date of 1671: cartouche of arms draped with swags in tympanum. Notable monuments salvaged from former church and reset in the Parish Room, include:- Sarah Rhodes, d.1813, by the Fishers of York; Sir Tancred Robinson, d.1754, by Robert Avray of York; Thomas Court, d.1803, by Plows; Sir Robert Watter and wife, dated 1610; Thomas Clifton, d.1754; Robert Belwood, d.1694; Thomas Bowes, d.1777, possibly by Fisher; Henry Waite, d.1780, by Fisher; and Richard Hudson, d.1802, by Chambers of Scarborough. Two hatchments to Herbert family. 5 carved corbel-heads, re-used, support roof trusses. The parish church of St Crux was demolished in 1887. (City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 11).
Listing NGR: SE6049751832

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

In 1087 the church of ST. CRUX, Pavement, was held by the Count of Mortain who had given it to Osbern, son of Boson. (fn. 60) This grant was later revoked by the Count, and the church, together with various York properties, given to Niel Fossard. (fn. 61) The advowson was given by Niel to St. Mary's Abbey by a deed dated between c. 1100 and c. 1115. (fn. 62) St. Mary's acquired several properties in Fossgate and in the vicinity of the church from the same source. (fn. 63) Adam, the first named parson of the church, is mentioned in a document dated between 1175 and 1190. (fn. 64) The right to the advowson was questioned by an heir of Niel in 1200 and the suit was settled in 1207 in favour of St. Mary's (fn. 65) who retained the advowson until the Dissolution, when it passed to the Crown. (fn. 66) In 1349 and 1405 the abbey waived its right of presentation in favour of the Crown. (fn. 67) The patronage was transferred to the archbishop in 1868. (fn. 68) The church was untouched by the 16th-century reorganization; it was united with All Saints', Pavement, in 1885, (fn. 69) and the fabric demolished in 1887. (fn. 70) The parish lay entirely within the city walls and comprised a small area round the church and southeast of it down to the Foss.
The rectory was valued at £5 in 1291; an annual pension of £1 was paid to St. Mary's. (fn. 71) In 1535 the rectory was valued at £8 16s. 8d. comprising £7 8s. lenten tithes and the remainder in oblations; the pension to St. Mary's was still £1. (fn. 72) In 1649 the parsonage house was valued at £3 a year and £9 10s. was contributed by several persons towards the maintenance of the minister. (fn. 73) In 1716 the principal part of the income was derived from voluntary quarterly offerings by the parishioners; £7 4s. from a gift of Sir Robert Watter, twice lord mayor of the city, and £4 10s. from anniversary sermons. (fn. 74) In 1764 the income was much the same but £5 was also received from the feoffees of the parish for reading prayers each evening throughout the year. (fn. 75) The living was augmented by £1,400 from Queen Anne's Bounty by lot from the parliamentary fund in 1814; in 1825 this sum was invested. (fn. 76) The living was endowed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners out of the Common Fund with £32 a year in 1844 and £33 6s. 8d. in 1877. In 1868 the gross income was said to be £120. (fn. 77) There appear never to have been any great tithes or glebe associated with the rectory.
There were at least five chantries in the church. Institutions to a chantry at the altar of the Virgin, founded by Adam Nayron, are recorded between 1307 and 1521 but the chantry does not occur in the Valor or in the returns of 1546. The advowson was held by the city. (fn. 78) Licence to alienate lands for the support of a chantry at the same altar was granted to Robert Meek in 1316. (fn. 79) The founder of the chantry at this altar was unknown in 1546 when it was valued at £1 19s. clear: it had been valued at 10s. in 1535. (fn. 80) The advowson of the chantry was the subject of transactions between York citizens in 1347 and 1367. (fn. 81) Licence to alienate lands to found a chantry in the church was granted to Thomas Durante in 1332. (fn. 82) There were two Durante chantries in the church in 1546: one was at the altar of Our Lady and All Saints, founded by Thomas Durante in 1338 and valued at £3 8s. clear; the other had been founded by Thomas Durante the younger at the altar of St. John the Baptist and was worth £1 6s. 11d. clear. (fn. 83) A chantry at the altar of Our Lady and St. Thomas the Apostle was founded by John Carden in 1407; in 1546 it was valued at £1 19s. 4d. clear. (fn. 84) The chantry is elsewhere spoken of as being founded by John Berden and in the patronage of the Gascoignes of Gawthorpe (W.R.), who presented between 1452 and 1486. (fn. 85) A chantry at the altar of St. Katherine is mentioned as the most valuable in the church in 1535: it is mentioned again in a will of 1537 but has not otherwise been identified. (fn. 86)
The church which survived into the 19th century (fn. 87) was probably built early in the fifteenth. It was larger and loftier than was usual in York city churches and comprised a nave, north and south aisles, and a tower at the south-west corner. There was a welldeveloped clerestory to the nave. The tower was rebuilt in brick in the late 17th century and a cupola placed on top. The west end of the nave and the aisles had also been reconstructed in later times. By the 1880's the structure needed complete restoration: it was partially taken down in 1884 but the rebuilding was never begun and the ruin remained until, in 1887, it was cleared away. Out of the materials was built a parish room which occupies part of the site of the church.
There was a 15th-century lectern in the church, now in All Saints', Pavement. The church contained monuments to the Herbert family whose house lay almost opposite in Pavement; there was a large monument to Sir Tancred Robinson (d. 1754). The remains of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, beheaded in York in 1572, lay in the church.
There were two bells, one inscribed 1523 and probably of Dutch or Flemish make. They were placed in the Yorkshire Museum when the church was demolished. In 1764 there were three bells in a peal which had been repaired and rehung in 1759 together with a small bell out of repair: one large bell and the small one had disappeared by 1825. (fn. 88) The plate comprised two silver cups, two silver patens, and a silver flagon. Two pewter flagons and a brass alms-dish were reported in 1764 and 1825 but have disappeared: a small chalice reported in 1764 was perhaps exchanged for one of the cups that have survived. (fn. 89) The registers begin in 1539 and are complete: they have been printed up to 1716. (fn. 90) From: 'The parish churches', A History of the County of York: the City of York (1961), pp. 365-404. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36375&strquery=crux Date accessed: 20 March 2013.

NMR information:

(SE 60495183) St. Crux Parish Room (NAT)

1. SHAMBLES (east side)
5343

Parish Room of St Crux

SE 6051 NE 17/313 14.6.54
SE 6051 NW 28/313

II* GV

2.
1884. Built on part of the site of the early medieval Parish Church
of St Crux, of which it incorporates slight remains, including the
lower part of the north wall with a blocked doorway on left-hand
side with 4-centred arched head. The window in the east wall is one
of the south aisle windows reset. Also from the old church are the
door in the west hall, 8 C15-C18 brasses and 13 monuments from
early C17-early C19. (RCHM Vol V, Monument 4). (2)


Part of an 11th-12th century cross-shaft was found in the north wall of the nave of the church by 1909. (3)

1 Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) OS 1:2500 1963.
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest 310-311 City of York, June 1983.
3 Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture VI: Northern Yorkshire 115 James Lang

Related event: (UID 613515) INVESTIGATION BY RCHME/EH ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY Architectural Survey 14-NOV-1995 - 14-NOV-1995

York Archaeological Trust, 2019, St Crux Parish Hall, Pavement WB (Unpublished document). SYO2221.