Houses then springing up – the priory of The Holy Trinity in Micklegate, York. He kept the Manor in his own possession.
Holy Trinity York was a cell of the Benedictine abbey of St Martin of Tours, Marmoutier, France. This ‘French connection’ obviously influenced Frenchman Paynel to make the gift. The income from St Andrews’ was used to help rebuild the French Abbey which had been destroyed in Viking raids.
The Benedictines sold the church to Baron Halton in 1115 who in turn gave it to the Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Runcorn (later relocated to Norton) a cell of the Augustinian priory of Bridlington. St Andrew’s stayed in Norton’s possession for more than four hundred years until the reformation.
In the south porch is a good example of an Early English doorway with three orders of shafts.
NORMAN WORK
The North arcade is the only substantial example of Norman work. Though the arches are pointed and seem to belong to the Transitional period. The decoration is typically earlier Norman, usually found with round arches. The mouldings are irregular and do not follow a perfect line which suggests that the three western arches may have originally been round. When the arches were made pointed, instead of discarding the elaborately carved stones they were re-used. More stone is required for pointed arches so, as there was only enough stone to make three arches, the fourth was reconstructed in the style of the time as was the East most pillar.
The opportunity was taken on later reconstruction of the North aisle arches to insert the strange long-snouted creature. In his book Canon Jarvis suggested that this is a “carver’s freak”.
Also inserted later in the centre of North arcade is a figure of a clean-shaven, curly-haired figure triumphing over a great toothed beast trying to drag him into the flames of hell. This suggests St John with a theme from the Book of Revelation.
LATER MEDIAEVAL
The South Aisle with its typically plain early English arches and pillars was constructed about a century after the North aisle was built.
In the early centuries AD the Catholic church developed the doctrine of purgatory, a place of purging passed through by the newly dead before moving on to heaven or hell. It was believed that the prayers of the living could improve the chances for those in purgatory. In later medieval times the practice of building chantries became common. The rich, or groups of people such as trade guilds could pay for chantry priests to pray for them after death. Jarvis records that there were chantry priests connected with St Andrew’s who probably used the Altar in the South Aisle.
SEDILIA/GREEN MAN. In the 13c sedilia – or priests’ seats became a fashionable addition in church chancels – always on the South wall. Burton probably received its beautifully carved triple sedilia later on, in the 14c or 15c. On the cusps of the arches are curious carvings. These are
