St Radegund's Church, Scruton, stands on
the northern side of Common Lane, where it meets Alban Coore Place
in the centre of the village. The church was erected in the twelfth
century, with thirteenth century aisles and chancel being added to
the original building. The tower is fifteenth century. At the drastic
'restoration' in 1865, which was practically a rebuilding, the
history of the church was almost entirely lost. This is when the
vestry, chapel and porch were added.
Scruton Wesleyan Chapel stands on the
eastern side of Station Road, close to the Coore Arms public house.
The chapel was converted from a dwelling in 1879, and could seat a
hundred. The photo here was taken in 2003. By 2010, the doorway had
been blocked up, with a coloured glass window in the upper section.
The garage door had been replaced with wooden 'barn doors' with a
small 'Pel House' plaque at the top. The building has also served
as a nursery.
All Saints of Yafforth stands on open ground
at the north-east corner of Moor Lane and Yafforth Road, on the eastern
side of the village of that name. Yafforth appears in Domesday Book,
described as a 'berewick' in the royal 'manor' of Northallerton. The
church may have been built in 1208, but little survives of it, including
a single-light window in the south wall of the chancel, and an octagonal
font on a long octagonal stem inscribed 'et: st: ml 1663', near the porch
outside.
The church remained a chapel of ease to Danby Wiske
Parish Church. With typical Victorian 'enthusiasm', it was almost entirely
rebuilt in 1870 by J P Pritchett in the thirteenth century style and with
a Norman window on the west side of the tower. Ashlar and coursed rubble
stone was used in the walls. A single bell was hung for ringing with six
angular canons. The building consists of a chancel, nave, a west tower of
three storeys, a vestry, organ chamber and south porch.
St Helen Ainderby Steeple is on the north-west
side of the A684, immediately south of Church Lea on a mound at the eastern
edge of the village. A church was first erected here in the twelfth century
or earlier, and the current fourteenth century building followed the same
general layout in terms of the nave. The church's high tower, which
can be seen for mile around, gave the village the appellation of Ainderby
with the Steeple from the fourteenth century onwards.
All photos on this page contributed by Colin Hinson.
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