ST MARY'S CHURCH, Lastingham, North Yorkshire. (See comments box for story).

This church at Lastingham near Pickering in North Yorkshire is one of the earliest seats of religion in the north of England and as a village church is quite unique. The earliest details come from the Venerable Bede who tells us that St Cedd, who was Bishop of East Anglia, came here in the 7th century to found a church where King Ethelwald of Northumbria might worship and find a last resting place. The first church was built c659AD and is the shrine of St Cedd who bequeathed the abbacy of his church to his brother Chad. Chad subsequently became Bishop of York and then Lichfield where he was buried and venerated as a Saint. Little is known of the later history of this church until 1078, when Abbot Stephen of Whitby Abbey began to rebuild Cedd’s church. It was such a wild and lawless place that Stephen eventually abandoned the work and went to York where he founded St Mary’s Abbey instead, leaving the legacy which is the main part of Lastingham church as we see it today. Stephen had first built a stone crypt which is a little church in itself, with a chancel, nave and side aisles and a unique apse, which has remained unchanged to the present time. It is thought that St Cedd was buried on the right side of the altar and it is possible that the crypt was also the last resting place of King Ethelwald. Although Stephen’s plans for a great Abbey church were not completed, the crypt and the east end of the church were eventually incorporated into the unique present day church which was completed in 1228 and restored in 1879.