Countryman's Diary: A village at the religious crossroads

Indeed, the village millennium exhibition was designed specifically to follow the trail of the history of Christian worship in the village, featuring centres of worship for Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists and Quakers.

Inside the Catholic church of Our Lady, beautifully created in an upper room of the old hall, there is a signed agreement in which leaders of all faiths agree to work together to further the cause of Christianity.

Osmotherley lies on the western edge of the North York Moors and the village overlooks the A19 route from York to Teesside near Clack Lane Ends, very close to the ruins of Mount Grace Priory.

It is a thriving village built chiefly of local stone - in the past, some writers considered it to be a small town - and it is extremely popular at weekends, Sundays in particular, when it is awash with day-trippers, tourists and pilgrims.

I spoke to one local man who said he never ventures out in his car on a Sunday because of the parking problems - if he went out, he'd never get back into his garage because a visitor's car would be parked outside. And people do leave their cars parked all over the village as they explore the surrounding hills and enjoy the moors with their spectacular scenery.

Osmotherley has very strong links with the Catholic faith and the parish church of St Peter, now Anglican, may have been built by the Carthusian monks. They built many churches and one of their most impressive efforts, even by world standards, is the amazing Mount Grace Priory on the plain below.

Masonry marks found in the belfry of the parish church are similar to those found in Mount Grace, while the fascinating St Peter's has traces of stonework dating to the 10th, 12th and 15th centuries. The font and the nave may date from the 12th century while the chancel is more modern, probably 14th century.

Resulting from the Reformation, however, the Catholic faith was outlawed and this lovely old church passed into Protestant hands, later being subjected to many changes.

One was the building of an aisle along the south side of the choir. This followed the 1540 will of Sir James Strangeways "to make one ile of the southe side of the quere of Osmotherley" to allow for the burial of himself and his wife.

Much later in 1892, the Victorians added their "improvements" but in this case, not much harm was done. About threequarters of a mile to the north of Osmotherley, on a spectacular plain just off the Cleveland Way, is the historic Lady Chapel. This was probably built by a prior of Mount Grace. It has been a focus for Catholic pilgrimage for 600 years but, resulting from the persecution of Catholics after the Reformation, it fell into disrepair.

Nonetheless, it was that very persecution which caused pilgrims to continue visiting the ruin, often at night or in secret, and their numbers increased so much that in 1614, there was a concern by the authorities about "divers and sundrie superstitious and papistlie affected persons" flocking to the shrine.

The Protestant Archbishop of York, Tobias Mathew, issued a writ to stop the pilgrimages and although the ban had a temporary effect, the pilgrimages continued - as they do to this day.

The chapel was restored in the 60s and its millennium project was the erection, along the approach route, of crosses which commemorate the crucifixion. There used to be a nunnery nearby too, at nearby Thimbleby. It was dedicated to St Stephen, but little else is known about it.

In Osmotherley, however, there is again a monastery in the old hall. This fine house was purchased by Lady Juliana Walmsley in 1665 to house Franciscan monks and at the height of Catholic persecution it was used to conceal recusants and monks fleeing from the authorities. There were Franciscan monks here until 1832 after which the house reverted to private hands, but it is once again a monastery, now staffed by Benedictine monks from Ampleforth Abbey, and with a neat little Catholic church in the upper portion.

Another of Osmotherley's strong religious links is its association with Methodism. When the established church refused to allow John Wesley - who had been ordained as a Church of England minister in 1728 - to preach within its buildings, he toured the country on horseback to speak to the people and was invited to Osmotherley by a Catholic priest.

It is said he stood on the remarkable stone table which stands near the market cross in the centre of the village, and his efforts resulted in one of the first Methodist chapels in the North of England or even in the entire country. It was built in 1754 in what became known as Chapel Passage but fell into disrepair when growing congregations necessitated larger premises in North End. John Wesley was a regular visitor to Osmotherley - there is a record of him coming this way in July, 1757, after which he wrote: "I rode through one of the pleasantest parts of England to Hawnby." When Wesley arrived in Hawnby, he found his followers had been thrown out of their homes and some had been prosecuted for disturbing the peace.

Following this, those early Methodists bought houses for themselves just outside Hawnby and, with his encouragement, created their own flourishing religious community. They built a chapel there in 1770 and enlarged it in 1814.

Back in Osmotherley, however, the Society of Friends, known as Quakers, had decided to establish a community in the village, and their first Meeting House was built in 1733, on land bought in 1723. It lies behind houses on the West End and the original plans included a burial ground. The society's founder, George Fox, may have visited Osmotherley but the Quakers' presence in the village has never been particularly active or prominent although I believe the Meeting House is still used.

And, with all that religious activity, it is not surprising that Osmotherley is said to have had illicit whisky stills on the moors, plus its own brewery and several pubs!

But it is impossible to get away from the troubles of the church - the Queen Catherine inn at Osmotherley is said to have been named in sympathy for the plight of Queen Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry VIII, whose divorce from her created such a huge religious rift in this country and led to the establishment of the Church of England.

Lost beauty

Wet weather around this time is said to result from the tears of St Mary Magdalene, possibly because she is weeping for the lost beauty of our roses when they begin to fade.

This seasonal fading of the roses is thought to happen around the time of her feast day which falls tomorrow. Another piece of lore says St Mary Magdalene is washing her handkerchief to go to her cousin, St James', fair. St James' Day follows on July 25.

The only piece of lore with which I can find any association with the weather, is that when St James' Day has passed, there may be hops on the vines, or else there might be none!

In some areas, it was the custom to roast a sheep, usually a ram, at fairs held on St James' Day. The entire animal was placed in a pit of hot embers with only the head showing and the idea was to prevent the horns from being burnt.

At one venue in Sussex, the head of the roasted animal was presented to the winning side in a cricket match while in other ram-roasting fairs the decorated carcase of the animal was carried through the village before being roasted. It is thought these ram-roasting fairs arose from a pagan ceremony which was in thanksgiving for a plentiful supply of water.

As I am compiling these notes in July it is raining and it has been doing so for several days ... maybe, somewhere nearby, somebody has roasted a sheep?

Wagtail musings

As our pair of wagtails continue to incubate their second clutch of eggs, a reader from Middleton St George relates how a pair nesting in clematis on her wall produced a handicapped chick exactly like the one I described in this column on June 23. Like ours, it left the nest early (or was ejected) and died very soon afterwards, but, she wonders if there is some disease which, in this particular way, affects only wagtails.