30th April 2025

Did you see the fuss in the press about Askrigg Parish Church in the Yorkshire Dales? Its grey stone exterior (which matches the village houses and the rocks on the hill) has been painted a bright white. Certainly it now stands out against everything else. The reason for doing this is to deal with damp problems in a medieval building and the stone needs limewash rather than grey modern paint. This solution to the damp problem is acceptable to the National Park authorities and the diocese, but the complaints and defence have reached the letters pages of broadsheet newspapers. Complaints seem mostly to be from non-residents and non-churchgoers who want it to look as they remember. The defence was from residents and churchgoers who did not want the church to deteriorate and become unusable. 

What are church buildings for? Worship, yes, but much more. 

Medieval churches were landmarks. Some coastal churches including Watchet were lighthouses. Some northern churches were semi-fortified against Scots raids. The first English maps for travellers, Ogilvy’s strip maps of 1670, show churches with towers or spires as useful landmarks. Ordnance Survey maps still show these. 

Churches were used for local feasts, “church ales”, meetings of those legally responsible for poor relief, schoolrooms etc. The clock was once the only reliable timepiece. More recently church bells were to ring if Hitler invaded. 

Our church slogan “Open to God, open for all” probably has the worshipping community in mind not the building, but we are in good company having it open for secular uses and making it usable for all kinds of events. 

Margaret Clements