St John's church private history tour.

We were very lucky to have a tour of St.Johns Church of England church. It was very interesting and I'd normally not have that much information about one place or topic. I really enjoyed the tour and having all of my questions answered was brilliant. The church history itself was interesting - but it made me aware of how much churches record. The Scots invasion when the church was set on fire for example, the church records must have been protected somehow. 

The gravestones set into the floor belong to very rich people - only the rich could afford to do this and this made me sad. Someone who was poor would never be allowed to be buried in a church. Poor people only seem to be mentioned in the war memorials. 

Robert Thompson also known as 'Mousey' Thompson was a British furniture maker born on 7th of May 1876 He was born and lived in Kilburn, North Yorkshire, England, where he set up a business making oak furniture Paul Neville, a former Headmaster of Ample fourth College, asked Robert Thompson to make to make the Ample fourth Abbeys' furniture; the school liked it so much that Ample forth College kept asking Thompson for more work, including the library and most of the main building. Most of Ample forth College's houses are now decorated with Robert Thompson's furniture. St. Johns church has two pieces of Robert Thompsons work.

This has all of the vicars of Knaresborough since the 1200's. It's incredible that a church has recorded every vicar since the time of King John! 

This window is one of two William Morris studio windows. These seem to have less colour than other windows in the church, but William Morris patterns can be seen on the clothing. 

This is a very rare coat of arms given to William III dated 1700. 

This is a plaque to commemorate Llieutenant David Gibson Turnbull, killed in the service of his country, 15th April 1917. While flying over Knaresborough, he experienced bad weather and landed on Crag top. Taking off when the weather had improved, he clipped a tree and crashed into the river Nidd. The family searched for three weeks until they found his body. He was buried in his native Scotland but his family requested a memorial in Knaresborough. 

The font in St Johns has a cover because at the time the priests would leave the water in over night and at the time people believed that witches would use the water to preformed spells so they lowered down the cover so no one could take any. 

It's difficult to make out on this photo, but the half circle shapes that you can see on the wall are the remains of the typical Norman style arched windows. It's amazing that if you know what you are looking for, you can see evidence of how churches have changed over the centuries. 

These paintings are of 

St Edmund's chapel was formerly known as the Roundel Chapel and Plompton Chapel, and Queen Philippa in 1328 took a special interest in seeing this section restored  after a Scottish raid where the church was set on fire. 

This sink was originally used for the priest to wash his hands. 

This altar was discovered in the graveyard and it dates from the 13th Century.  The carved crosses show how it was used for religious reasons. 

The Slingsby chapel is fascinating for a number of reasons.