The village of Upleatham in
the old North Riding of Yorkshire did an odd thing in the 17th
century: it moved for no apparent reason.
Well, there must have been a
reason, I suppose, but no one seems to remember what it was. And by moving a few yards up the hill to its
current location, it left behind its old place of worship, which still sits,
marooned almost in the middle of nowhere, a little to the south-east of the
present-day clutch of houses. Despite
this shift in the nucleus of the village, the old church of St.Andrew ’s
continued to serve it purpose for another 150 years.
The village’s
new church, built in the 1830s, eventually came to serve the locals, leaving
the old edifice literally out on a limb. As early as 1822 the decision had been
made to dismantle the original church, but until the new one was finished it
limped on – though they demolished as much as they could, leaving the tower and
a small section of nave for essential services. When the services stopped, it
was left standing for use as a cemetery chapel.
And I guess they
just never got round to finishing the job – of demolition, that is. Which is
nice, really, as there is evidence of a church having been on the site since at
least the 9th century. But can half a church count as ‘the smallest
church in England ’? I don’t see why not.
As it happens,
the ‘new’ village was soon to suffer destruction, too, during 1890-1905 when
subsidence caused by ironstone mining necessitated the demolition of more than
half the buildings. What an odd history Upleatham has.
Image taken from
the ‘Photos of Churches’
website. And more ramblings – and some detailed measurements of the competing
‘smallest churches’ – can be found here.
For a great selection of history books try...
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