The History of Stainburn Church

KIRKBY OVERBLOW:
The History of Stainburn Church

Stainburn.* To this account of the Chapels at Ripon, we append an exterior view of the little Church of Stainburn. The original structure of this very unpretending little Church is Norman. The chancel is perpendicular. A good though plain wooden roof is covered with a flat ceiling. The roof thus obscured is of good, though less than the original, pitch: it followed originally the line of the bell gable.

* Stainburn is five or six miles from Otley, the church stands in the midst of bleak hills, lately and imperfectly inclosed. At Leathley, between Otley and Stainburn, the ecclesiologist will find a very early Norman tower, and some other things not unworthy of note.

As in St. Mary Magdalen's and many churches of the like kind, the exterior of this little church owes all its character to the bell gable, which, in this instance, rises on the east nave wall, between the nave and the chancel. It has openings for two bells, but one only is occupied.

The font is of the date of the original structure.

The seats are part of them very good, though extremely simple : open benches with square ends, and though not ancient, yet old, and almost to be called models, where extreme plainness and cheapness is desirable.

There is a pew in the most unhappy of all possible situations, within the altar rails! Under what possible combination of lay interference and clerical obsequiousness could such a thing have been permitted ?