Message #50102

[Bianca]

                                                               All Saints, Old Byland
 






The Church
   


How old is this church? Much of the stone work is early Norman in style.

If you go out into the churchyard and look up at the east wall of the nave, above the roof of the chancel,
there you will see, embedded into the stonework, the old coping stones of an earlier, lower roof.

This must have belonged to a church predating the Norman period.

Judging from where that roof comes down, the south wall of the chancel and the north wall of the nave both in fact belonged to the original Saxon church.

The primitive arch over the blocked-off priest’s door into the chancel also looks Saxon.






Embedded in the outer wall of the porch on the eastern side is an ancient Saxon sundial.


http://www.upperryedale.org.uk/obyland.htm