Click for more photos

Salton
(North Yorkshire
)

St John of Beverley

   In the early 12th century Archbishop Thurstan of York gave Salton church to the wealthy priory at Hexham, which may explain the size of the surviving building. The earliest part is the chancel which has a priest's door with zig-zag decoration on the arch. The nave is late 12th century with a south doorway, now very eroded, featuring numerous beak heads. The chancel arch rests on scalloped capitals (suggesting a date after c. 1160) and is decorated with zig-zag below a hood mould with pellets in relief. The west tower is also Norman and possibly built, in part, to act as a look-out point by villagers fearing a recurrence of a raid by the Scots in the reign of Stephen when the church was burnt.

Bibliography

Pevsner, N., 1966. The Buildings of England, Yorkshire: the North Riding (London, Penguin), 317