Pickering Chronicle -2
Today I had to visit a couple of parishioners in Middleton, so I called
in at the ancient parish church of St Andrew. It is Saxon in origin,
and the tower - or at least the lower storey - remains convincingly
Saxon, with long-and-short stonework, a clearly Saxon doorway, now
blocked up, and a Saxon cross carved halfway up the tower - a square
cross, rather of the proportions of St Cuthbert's cross.
Inside, the nave looks Norman, with rounded arches supported by
pillars. The capitals on the south side are all different, one with
Corinthian foliage, one plain, a couple octagonal, one shaped like a
cross. The capitals on the north side are all identical, and I suspect
they have been replaced at some stage.
Most interesting though are five stone crosses stored in the north
aisle, apparently Anglo-Scandinavian, though one apparently shows
Celtic influence. One of the Anglo-Scandinavian ones has a carving of
a "Jellinge" beast - a dragon, if ever I saw one! Two have carvings of
a warrior, with sword and scrama-seax. They are very similar, and may
have been made from the same template.
The information was mounted on boards, but there was no take-away
leaflet, so far as I could see, so I am reliant upon my feeble memory,
but such was the prospect of St Andrew's Church, Middleton, not two
miles from my front door. St Andrew was a popular dedication for Saxon
churches; I have come across a number of them.
Oriens.
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