Notes on St James' Church and the Village Warter,
East Yorkshire

Warter in its delightful setting on the south-western edge of the Wolds, some four miles north-east of Pocklington, is undoubtedly one of East Yorkshire's most picturesque villages. Dominating the centre of the village is the church with its prominent steeple that makes a striking contribution to the landscape. The church - for many years redundant with an uncertain future - will very soon become the property of the Yorkshire Wolds Buildings Preservation Trust. With the support of enthusiastic villagers, the Trust intends to carry out any necessary conservation work and make this wonderful building available for concerts, exhibitions, lectures and other suitable events.

The Church of St James stands on the site of part of the church of the priory of Augustinian canons that was established here in 1132. The priory was dissolved in 1536, and its site and lands granted to the Earl of Rutland. Earthworks marking the foundations of monastic buildings, partly excavated in 1899, can be seen to the north and east of the church.

The present church was built in 1862-3 for the 5th Lord Muncaster. The architects were W.G. Habershon & A.R. Pite, a partnership which specialised in evangelical churches. The building, of brick-sized stones with a tiled roof, is in a simple, early Decorated style. It consists of a chancel with polygonal apse, an aisless nave, south porch and a west tower with a broach-spire. An impressive domed mausoleum for the Nunburnholme family was added on the north side in 1908 by John Bilton, the scholar-architect from Hull, in collaboration with Sir George Frampton. Sadly the mausoleum was demolished in 1966 and the wall rebuilt without windows.

Inside the church, the very wide nave and the shallow chancel reveal the architects' low church sympathies. The stained glass in the apse is by Charles Gibbs c.1863 as are the windows of the north nave and the west window. The two particularly beautiful windows in the south nave of 1909, are by Robert Anning Bell, who was a Gold Medallist of the Royal Academy and later a Master of the Art Workers' Guild. He was also responsible for the magnificent windows of the mausoleum, which have fortunately survived. The ships featured in these two windows reflect the Nunburnholme maritime interests.

There are some exceptionally fine monuments, several of them by Sir George Frampton, R.A., who like Bell was a Gold Medallist of the Royal Academy and Master of the Art Workers' Guild. He was responsible for the exquisite monument, lying in the shallow aisle on the north side of the nave, to Lady Isabel, daughter of the Duke of Roxburghe, who married Guy Wilson, D.S.O. and died in 1905 aged 26. The mausoleum was built to house this fine white marble monument which would have been set against a dark wall and lit from each side by the stained glass windows of Robert Anning Bell. The magnificent iron gates formerly led into the mausoleum and it is interesting to reflect that this monument would have been directly opposite the two windows in the south nave referred to above.

The other particularly fine monument, also by Frampton, is to Charles Henry Wilson, first Baron Nunburnholme, 1833-1907. This, also in white marble, consists of a delicate low-relief panel with portraits of him and his wife, framed by pilasters and raised on to a high plinth between seated female figures each carrying a symbolic object. One is an urn with tiny figures of God the Father and two angels on top of it, while the other is a globe surmounted by a ship in full sail. The background shows the prows of two ships where there would normally be urns. Yet another Frampton monument is to Gerald Valerian Wiison who died in 1908 aged 21. Now on the north wall of the aisle, this is a coloured tablet set in a bronze frame with small standing figures of Fortitude and Sympathy. It was formerly housed in the mausoleum.

There are earlier marble wall-tablets to members of the Pennington family of Muncaster Castle, Cumberland who owned the Waiter estate from the late seventeenth century to 1878 when it was sold to Charles 'Wilson who was created Lord Nunburholme in 1906, the year before his death.

There is some very handsome furniture in the chancel, of c. 1910, with egg and dart detail in the panelling, communion rails and stalls. This was designed by John Bilson and carved by J.E. Elwell of Beverley (who had also been responsible for the richly carved oak panelling in the Great Hall of Warter Priory).

The Churchyard, a haven for wildlife, is one of the few remaining places for herb-rich chalk grassland. The church path is lined with English yew trees, elsewhere there are Irish yews and lilacs and laburnams, remnants of the Victorian planting. To the left of the path going from the church is a gravestone to 'Praying' Johnny Oxtoby, the charismatic preacher who helped convert many in East Yorkshire to Primitive Methodism in the early C19.

To the north of the church, is a further series of important monuments to the Wilson family by the sculptor Gilbert Bayes. They were moved here on the sale of the estate in 1929 from the grounds of the family mansion Waiter Priory where those commemorated were originally buried. The monument to Charles Henry Wilson, first Baron Nunburnholme, has a standing figure of Victory with a laurel wreath and sword standing on a marble plinth. In a similar style nearer the church is a monument to Gerald Valerian Wilson, with a standing bronze female figure carrying flowers. Both monuments incorporate small areas of gilding. A sandstone tomb-chest in Georgian style commemorates Charles Henry Wellesley Wilson, second Lord Nunburnholme who died in 1924. It is sad that details have been stolen from these monuments and they have been damaged and are now overgrown.

Bell, Frampton and Bayes had closely parallel careers and were key figures of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain. Examples of their work include the mosaics by Robert Anning Bell at Westminster Cathedral and on the Horniman Museum. He also designed fabrics for Morris & Co. Sir George Frampton had taught at the Slade School of Art, and one of his best known works is the sculpture of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, London. He was a leading European sculptor and other major works by him include the spandrels above the main entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the lovely memorial to Nurse Edith Cavell outside the National Portrait Gallery. Gilbert Bayes designed the gilt clock outside Selfridges in Oxford Street. Frampton and Bayes were prominent figures in the important "New Sculpture" Movement.

A Village Tour

Start in the centre of the village at the triangular Cross Green with its fine War Memorial Cross. It was the site of the market and annual fair in the early middle ages. Here are the oldest buildings. To the south is Ludhill Farm, rendered brick and stone, four bays with projecting wing to 1., C18 with C19 additions and alterations, and to the north Manor House (Coatgares). The latter was rebuilt using ashlar stone from the Priory site in 1731-2. The first tenant of the new farmhouse was Robert Oxtaby who took on the tenancy in 1734; this date and the initials R.O. are crudely inscribed on a stone to the left of the entrance door. Four bays with a pantile roof and end and axial stacks.

The picturesque thatched row of four cottages on the west side of the green is a creation of c. 1930. The rest of Warter was largely rebuilt in the later CI9. In 1865 a government report described the village as 'extraordinarily shabby'; the houses were 'hovels' with 'mossy, mouldy thatch' and 'bulging walls'. By this date the Muncasters had begun the rebuilding. A pair of rendered cottages on the main road, 1 mile west are dated 1858 as is the brick cottage with the oriel window, timber work, and monogram in blue brick near the pond. A more elaborate 'Gothic' style was introduced with the building of the school in 1868, now the Village Hall, Pocklington Road. This has polychrome brickwork, a slate roof with a decorative ridge and pinnacles, and bargeboards. Opposite is a pair of red brick cottages with white and blue brick details, hipped slate roof, gabled dormers and porches, dated 1871. Nos. 1-3 Nunburnholme Road, dated 1874, and the Keeper's Cottage, ½ mile south-west, are in a similar style. In 1879 Smith & Brodrick were brought in to design several blocks of'ornamental cottages', and they were presumably responsible for the pairs of rather plain brick and slate cottages along Nunburnholme Road and the terrace opposite the Village Hall. They were also surely the architects of the village shop with its timber and tile-hung gable, multi-paned windows and coved eaves, in a Bedford Park manner, and the so-called Ornamental Cottages to the west on the road to Pocklington. Three cottages designed in the form of a hall and cross wings. Red brick to ground floor with timber-framed and jettied gable to left, and tile-hung gable to right wing. Wooden balustered porches. Further W are the Lodge and Entrance Gates to Warter Priory, the vast Victorian mansion of the Muncasters and Nunburnholmes, demolished in 1972.