St Mary & St Everilda

THE FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH: WILLIAM CONSTABLE-MAXWELL

William Constable-Maxwell came of an ancient Scottish family which had held to the Roman faith.

The 9th Lord Herries had been involved in the Jacobite rising of 1715, taken prisoner at Preston, attainted (that is, convicted of treason and deprived of all inheritance and civil rights) and condemned to death. He escaped while awaiting execution and died in Rome, faithful to the Pretender’s cause. Had it not been for the attainder, his son - and later his granddaughter Winifred Maxwell - would have inherited the barony of Herries but it was not until 1858 when Winifred's grandson William applied to Parliament for the reversal of the attainder that the Herries barony was eventually restored. 

William was content to be known as 10th Lord of that title, taking up the numeral where it had been left off almost a century and a half before. His son Marmaduke, however, later styles himself 14th Lord Herries thereby posthumously granting to three generations of his ancestors a title which Parliament had denied them.

The chapel was built between 1836 – 1839, ten years after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act made it legal for Roman Catholic chapels to be erected. Nearly all earlier chapels were merely rooms within the country houses of Catholic families, the same gentry who had kept the faith alive through the years of persecution, the previous chapel at Everingham being just such an example. We have William’s intentions in building a new church recorded in his own hand in 1852:-

“… in consequence of my old chapel being considerable too small the congregation and the inconvenience of having its only entrance through the House, I commenced a new one intending only that it was, to all intents and purposes a private one, such as had been the old one. When nearly completed and when talking with Rev. Mr Newsham, who was then my Chaplain, he suggested that I could have it consecrated and that he would speak the Bishop, Dr Briggs, on the subject"

To commence building on this scale while intending it to be just for private use, appears incredible to us today. Having formed the resolution to William cast his net far and wide in search of craftsmen.

The consecration of the church took place on Saint Everilda’s feast day 1839 ‘…attended by circumstances of splendour which have not been surpassed, if ever equalled, since the time of the Reformation’ [York Courant 1839].

Work on his church completed, William turned his attention to the house. Everingham Park had been built by his grandfather between 1757 and 1764 from designs by John Carr of York and replaced an earlier house on the site. William built a new wing on the north side, provided new rooms and enlarging the offices: a bell tower built at the same time afforded a link with the church.

His vision of his majestic chapel now a reality, his house modernised and extended, his parkland landscaped with a new road and artificial lake - and having fathered 16 children - William appears to be content. The family’s title was restored to him in 1858 and as Lord and Lady Herries, he and his wife continued their benevolence in the neighbourhood. Herries sent his butler’s sons to be educated at Stonyhurst College and Lady Marcia, in 1865, invited the Poor Clare Colletines to their present monastery in Lawrence Street, York.

Their obvious love of all things Roman culminated, in spring 1866, with a visit to Rome and a meeting with the Pope. Lord Herries described their visit in one of his letters to the rest of the family at home.

 “On Thursday last, I and Joey [his son Joseph] had the great blessing and happiness of attending the Pope's mass and receiving Holy Communion from his hands in his own private apartments. I never was so delighted before …the ladies were quite jealous [they] had been perpetually racing about to try and get a sight of His Holiness and receive his blessing, lying in wait for him at every corner. Yesterday Joey had not gone far before he met The Holy Father out walking! The good Pope immediately spoke to him and shook him by the hand; Joey then spied his mamma and the girls who had been following [the Pope]. He immediately bought up his mamma and said ‘Voila ma mere, Lady Herries’. The Pope beckoned her up to him and spoke most kindly to her … she kissed his hand … but Marcia and Theresa could not get quite near enough as there were some very pushy French Sisters of Charity. I found them all bursting with delight when I got home”.

What a period to visit Rome when, while seeing the sights, one might meet ‘The Holy Father out walking”.

Herries died 10 years later on 12th November 1876 aged 72 and is buried in the small family cemetery by the west wall of the church. On coming across his unfinished memoranda book for the year; Marmaduke, his son and heir, completes the volume with this entry:-

“He was the most kind and popular of landlords the most unselfish and affectionate of fathers and most generous to the poor. Scarcely ever was he known to refuse charity to a beggar and all might have food at his house for the asking of it. May his posterity profit by his example and imitate his virtues. RIP”

THE CONSECRATION CEREMONY: 9TH OF JULY 1839

[Extracts from a report which appeared in The York Courant 18th of July 1839]

“On Tuesday the village at an early hour presented the scene of unusual animation. It having been announced that the service would begin at 6:30. A great concourse of people had assembled at that hour from the neighbouring country to witness the proceedings. A few minutes before 7, the Bishops and clergy - having robed themselves in the hall - formed themselves into procession and proceeded at a slow solemn pace to the newly erected church. The procession was headed by a cross bearer who carried a large silver cross and was attended by two acolytes with lighted tapers; these were followed by thirty six clergymen walking two and two, dressed in white surplices, after whom came another cross bearer then followed three Bishops in rich and beautiful copes with mitres on their heads each with two attendants. After these followed another cross bearer with a gilt cross.  Immediately succeeding came the thurifer with burning incense, two acolytes with lighted tapers and the assistants of the officiating Bishop.

 The Right Reverend Dr Briggs VA of the Northern District in a splendid cope with his mitre and crozier closed the august procession. The cope with which the Right Reverend prelate was robed is nearly 500 years old and the beauty and neatness of its texture seemed to attract the admiration of the multitude.

As soon as the procession left the hall the sun, which for a short time previous had been shrouded, burst forth in all its splendour and as the rich copes and the shining mitres of the bishops and the silver and gilt crosses glittered in the morning rays, the solemn ceremony produced a most imposing effect.

SAINT EVERILDA

Everingham is one of the few parishes which can boast that its church is dedicated to a saint who actually lived in the village. The little we know about Saint Everilda is to be found in three readings composed during the Middle Ages for use on her feast day July 9th. There we learn that she came of a noble family but left home in order to devote her life to God: with two others, Wulfreda and Bega, she approached Wilfred, Bishop of York 669-677, for assistance and he gave her a piece of land at ‘Bishops Farm, Everildisham’. Here she founded her convent and, as fame of her virtues spread, more pious women joined her - as many as eighty residing here at one time. Her name is in daily use in the village today: both churches are dedicated to her, the terrace of seven houses built around the middle of the 19th century is named after her and Saint Everilda’s Well is marked on old maps to the south of Garden Cottages.

Among the readings for her feast in the York Breviary is found this prayer, recommended to all who wish to venerate her memory.

“Everlasting God whilst with becoming devotion we celebrate the memory of the holy virgin, Saint Everilda, and glorify the power thou didst exercise over her; grant that we may have the benefit of her help in this life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.” 

THE FIRST 150 YEARS

Little has altered in William’s church since its completion. His granddaughter Gwendoline, the eldest of Marmaduke’s two daughters, was married here on the 9th of February 1904 to Henry 15th Duke of Norfolk who was a widower and 30 years older than Gwendoline.

The ceremony attracted nationwide attention and was featured on the cover of The Illustrated London News the following week. The full page sketch shows the wedding ceremony with the Bishop, attended by three priests and four servers, officiating. The sanctuary is laden with flowers; Arum lilies and hothouse ferns in their thousands adorn every corner.

The Duke’s official residence was Arundel but they returned to Everingham frequently their retinue filling the front of the church, the Duke and all the menfolk seated on the left hand the Duchess and the women on the right on Sunday mornings. The Duke’s custom of wearing shabby clothes together with his full beard caused consternation during his visits here and gave rise to some enduring anecdotes:- anew maid having given sixpence to a labourer to carry her bags from the station was horrified to have it solemnly returned to her by the head of the household when she served his dinner that night.

Gwendoline too is well remembered by the older villagers her influence still felt today more than 40 years after her death. Everingham has no pub: the familiar watering place was promptly closed down after a horse, bringing the Duchess home in the carriage one day, forgot itself and turned into the pub yard as it was wont to do in her absence.

Henry died in 1917 and was succeeded by his son Bernard 16th Duke of Norfolk who was then only nine years old. He became a well-known public figure in his role as Earl Marshall at the state funerals of George V, George VI and Sir Winston Churchill: the coronations of George VI and Queen Elizabeth II and finally at the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. Stories of his behaviour at the coronation are legion:- “If the bishops don't learn to walk in step we should be here all night”,  he is reported to have said; and, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, “No no, Archbishop that won't do at all, go back there and we'll do it all again”.

1939 saw the 100th anniversary of the church and great festivity. The day began at 7:30am with Mass said by the Abbot Smith CRL. At 8:15 another Mass said by His Eminence Cardinal Hinsley then, at 10:30, Bishop Shine of Middlesbrough sung Mass. In the late afternoon, the members of the congregation were invited into the Hall to meet His Eminence and the day finished with vespers and benediction at 6 o'clock.

In 1963 much of the Hall was pulled down and was restored, as nearest possible, to its original appearance in preparation for the arrival of its new of its new occupant, the late Duke’s eldest daughter Lady Anne fitzalan Howard. It was at this time that the bell tower and the connecting corridor were demolished, the three bells were taken down and, no-one realising their historic importance, were loaded into a horsebox and taken off to a smelting yard in Whitechapel. These bells were almost certainly the first to be cast in England specifically for a Catholic Church since before the Reformation. A series of hasty telephone calls rectified the mistake and the horsebox trundled its load northwards again. The bells spent the next 20 years in a barn before being rescued again and taken to the newly erected cathedral of Saint Mary in Middlesbrough. There they now hang and, in the book produced for the cathedral’s opening, appears this tribute:-

“It seems entirely appropriate that these particular bells should hang in our campanile for, not only have they come from within the diocese, but they have come from a place where the faith has been kept alive from the days of Saint Wilfred through the Penal days right down to the present time. They ring in celebration of the strength and continuity of Christian belief”.

In 1982, the Everingham estate comprising of Hall, Park, farms, cottages and church were sold and Lady Anne, now Baroness Herries, moved south to live near Arundel.

The fabric of the church is now the property of Mr Alfred Bottomley, the purchaser of the Hall and Park he joins with Baroness Herriess and the Bishop of Middlesbrough as its trustees. Under the guidance of these trustees a plan of the proposed repair work has been drawn up and Phase One is already complete. 

The rest of the repairs will take longer: William’s neo classical design, while suited to sunny Mediterranean climes, has not fared so well in the wet East Riding and damp has penetrated with disastrous results. Phases 2 and 3 aim to tackle, firstly, outside repointing and rendering the walls then to repair the damage to the fine plaster work within.

To prevent further damage to some of our treasures, the vestments have been removed from their cupboard in the sacristy and taken to Middlesbrough: music books have found a new, drier home at the Bar Convent Museum in York.

Happily, in complete contrast to the slow deterioration of the fabric, the human element of the church has undergone a resurgence and the congregation hass swelled in recent years. Many more young families have entered the parish and every Sunday morning the church echoes to the sound of children playing, laughing and sometimes crying.  Their voices lift, for the first time, in the church where some of them will attend for the rest of their lives -  the next generation of Catholics to worship here and ensure its healthy growth towards the next 150 years.

ADDENDUM 2023

“… in the church where some of them will attend for the rest of their lives -  the next generation of Catholics to worship here and ensure its healthy growth towards the next 150 years.”

When I wrote those words back in 1989, I couldn’t have foreseen what changes the near future would bring.

Some ten years later, the Bishop of Middlesborough announced that he would be withdrawing the priest and giving up the Diocese’s 999 year lease on the building. The distressed parishioners spent time and much effort seeking ways of keeping the church alive but the final Mass was celebrated there by Father Jerry Twomey on Sunday August 28th 2004 with much of the congregation in tears.

With three Catholic churches then in the vicinity (Holme on Spalding Moor has since closed) it was inevitable that the parishioners would split to separate churches and a formerly close-knit community was lost.

The Grade I church building, Park and Hall are now in the ownership of Mr and Mrs Philip Guest, Mr Bottomley’s heirs, who have battled for grant monies to help with the building’s upkeep and latterly been successful in repairing and decorating the ceiling.  The Hall’s associated buildings are now a successful wedding venue and the church is the venue of occasional concerts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Constable Maxwell manuscripts on loan to Hull University Library 

The National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies the record of church furnishings 

Saint Mary's Cathedral, Middlesbrough.

Arthur Oswald - Country Life February 1968 

Hugh Honour -Architectural Review September 1957 

Henry Stapleton - The History of Saint Everilda’s church in the village of Everingham April 1965 

Brian Masters – The Dukes 

I also wish to thank Pete Edwards, Harry Hodgson and the students of Pocklington School art department for all their work in producing the illustrations for this book.

Gill Hodgson ©

November 1988

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