Kellington Church
Researched and written by Richard Lockwood
Although Kellington (Chelinctone) is mentioned in the Doomsday book, there is no indication of a Church at the settlement. The Knights Templer, who had a preceptory at Temple Hirst, appointed John De Kellington rector in 1185; this is the first indication of a Church at Kellington. Three generations later, in 1339, a vicarage was established with Robert de Melburn as the first vicar.
The Church is dedicated to St Edmound, King and Martyr, the King of the East Angles, who was martyred at the hands of the Danes in 869. This is quite a strange name for a church so far from Suffolk but John de Kellington's predecessor was a member of the Hastings Family who had held lands in East Anglia, so this could be one explanation.
At the disbanding of the Knights Templer in 1312, the property was passed to the Knights Hospitallers of St John. It then passed to the Master and Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge at the Reformation, during the reign of Henry the Eighth. It is now is in the hands of Diocesan Board of Patronage.
Kellington Parish covered the villages of Whitley, Roall, Eggbrough and Beal. (Beal was taken into the parish of Birkin in 1873.)
Anyone who has visited the church, even in the summer, will have experienced the bleakness of its setting. Perched on a hill outside the village, over 25 feet above the lowest part of the settlement, it has very little shelter from the wind or rain. At well over a quarter of a mile from the vicarage, it was quite a hike for the incumbent, let alone the congregation. Could it be for safety’s sake, this high point was chosen? It would be very unlikely to flood, which was a very real threat in days gone by. Or was it so that it was more central to the five surrounding villages it served?
Kellington Parish Church was, until 1926, in the diocese of York, but was then transferred to Wakefield, in the Pontefract deanery.
The church is constructed of limestone; this is very attractive, so I am told, especially when lit for special occasions, or when the Sun catches it just right on a summer day. (Mine was a winter visit.) With no stained glass windows, the extra light that is allowed in, coupled with the white walls, makes for a very bright interior, at least for a church. Very little of the main Norman shell remains, after extensive alterations and additions in the 12th century.
Prior to this expansion, a new tower was built. In fact, there is evidence to suggest there could have been two previous but aborted attempts at tower building between c1200 to c1250. Both towers either fell down or were taken down before the present one was erected sometime around 1250. Major alterations seem to have taken place about the time that the Hospitallers of St John acquired the property (c1312); the north aisle was widened during this time. The chancel was extended to its current length and a two-storey structure was added to the east side of the north aisle. The second storey was most likely to have been a chapel.
The gate posts, which are now subject to a preservation order, date back to 1698. The Lady Chapel’s alter is inscribed with the names of the Churchwardens at that time: Thos Chanter, Rich Dickon, John Ward and Wm Rawdon.
Perhaps because of its remoteness, the church has had more than its fair share of unwelcome visitors. Thieves stripped the lead from the nave roof in the 1950’s. Later, the Bishop’s Chair, a wonderfully carved piece in black oak, was stolen. Then, in 1987, the early 17th century chest was taken from the choir vestry.
Between the 1st October 1990 and the 7th January 1991 the whole inside of the church, plus a two meter wide strip around the exterior the walls, were excavated to determine the extent of damage from subsidence that could occur if the planned coal extraction from the Selby coalfield went ahead. This turned into a full-scale archeological excavation, which revealed over a 1000 burials, the earliest dating to the Saxon period. Major underpinning of the church was carried out after these excavations.