Pickering Castle and Parish Church
Sunday 06 July
Depart: Parkinson Steps: 12.30
Arrive: Parkinson Steps: 19.30
Price: £47.50
This excursion takes us to the attractive North Yorkshire market town of Pickering, situated on the southern edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, and allows participants to visit two fine medieval sites – Pickering Castle and the parish church of St Peter and St Paul.
In Pickering, participants will visit the castle, which stands high above Pickering Beck. Originally built for dominion, it became a residence as well as a centre for royal hunting and local administration. The castle’s growth can be traced from its original Norman timber and earth construction of about 1069-70, probably during the ‘Harrying of the North’, to its final early 14th-century form of stone.
The castle, Honour, and Forest of Pickering belonged to the Crown from the Conquest until 1267, when Henry III gave the castle to his son Edmund ‘Crouchback’, Earl of Lancaster. The surviving walls of the early 13th-century shell keep, known as ‘The King’s Tower’, are attributed to the reign of Henry III. These walls stand about 4 m (13 ft) high atop the 11th-century motte at the heart of the site. The substantial stone wall surrounding the outer ward, built in the 1320s to keep out marauding Scots, was a late replacement for the original wooden herisson or wooden palisade. The various remains in the inner and outer wards, including the foundations of the Constable’s timber frame lodgings, the 12th-century hall, and a larger 14th-century hall, together with a chapel and siting of stables, very much reflect the daily activities of life in a castle. Various storehouses also survive, including the remains of a wool house which could accommodate up to 1,600 fleeces. Henry III’s Christmas feast at York in 1251 consumed, amongst other resources, 100 wild swine from Pickering Forest, which were quite likely processed within the castle itself. The castle was also used to dispense justice, dealing with affairs of the Honour and Forest of Pickering. The castle was the administrative centre for a hunting reserve and visited for that purpose. Some 550 m (600 yards) to the west, across the river, is Beacon Hill, upon which are the possible remains of a rare siegework erected during a siege by King Louis in 1216-17.
The excursion will also take in the remarkable parish church of St Peter & St Paul, which lies only a short walk from the castle. The church contains two fine military effigies, a mid-14th-century one of Sir William Bruce and the other of Sir David Roucliffe (along with his wife Margery), who was constable of Pickering Castle between 1397 and 1407. However, the church is most celebrated for its surviving medieval wall paintings of the late 15th century, which, although restored between 1879-95, which were described by Pevsner as ‘one of the most complete series […] in English churches and they give one a vivid idea of what ecclesiastical interiors were really like.’ Included are a full pictorial history of St Katherine of Alexandria, the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy, St George and the Dragon, St Christopher, Herod’s Feast, the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ, the Harrowing of Hell and the Resurrection, and the martyrdoms of St John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, and St Edmund. Whilst at the church, we will meet up with Professor Kate Giles (Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York), who will explain the significance and function of these paintings. Professor Giles wrote the definitive account of these paintings and their restoration in her 2022 book, The Wall Paintings of Pickering Church, which won a prestigious Historians of British Art Book award in 2024.
This excursion will once again be led by Kelly DeVries, Professor of the Department of History, Loyola University, Maryland and Consultant, Royal Armouries and Robert C. Woosnam-Savage, FSA, Curator Emeritus, Royal Armouries, Leeds.
Sensible footwear is recommended, as there will be a significant amount of walking on uneven surfaces and climbing steep stone steps. It would also be advisable to bring a raincoat and sunblock.
