St Mary the Virgin, Muker
St Mary the Virgin, Muker
St Mary the Virgin is the Grade II* parish church of Muker in Upper Swaledale, North Yorkshire, in the Diocese of Leeds and the benefice of Swaledale with Arkengarthdale. Historic England notes it as a rare example of a new church of 1580.
- Location
- Muker, Yorkshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Yorkshire
- City / town
- Muker
- Address
- Church Street, Muker, Yorkshire, DL11 6DN
- Postcode
- DL11 6DN
- Built
- 1580; C18 alterations; restored 1891
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Leeds
- Parish
- Swaledale with Arkengarthdale
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Elizabethan; later Perpendicular windows
- Materials
- Rubble with stone slate roof
- Grid reference
- SD 910 978
- Opening hours
- Open daily. Parking is limited in the village and the church sits atop a steep, short hill.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
The listing describes a rubble church under a stone slate roof, with a west tower, nave and chancel under one roof, and a south porch. The tower of three stages, possibly of 1580, has two-light chamfered-mullion belfry openings and a lead rainwater head dated 1793. The porch kneeler is dated 1849; the inner doorway is a four-centred chamfered arch inscribed LW 1719 IP. Nave and chancel are substantially of 1580, with a two-light chamfered-mullion window to the south-west and later nineteenth-century windows of two trefoil-headed lights.
Beaded wall plates and roof timbers are substantially of 1580, raised from a steeper thatched pitch in 1761. Wikipedia records that the thatched roof was replaced in slate in 1791 and that the tower was adapted in 1719. Restoration followed in 1891. The church stands on a short steep rise above the village, one of four Anglican churches in the large Swaledale with Arkengarthdale parish.