Saint Clement’s Church, on Scarcroft Road, York … designed by the Atkinson brothers and built in 1872-1874 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
During our weekend visit to York, we were staying off Scarcroft Road, south-west of the city centre and close to Saint Clement’s Church, at the junction of Scarcroft Road and Nunthorpe Road.
I have stayed here a number of times in recent years, and thought last weekend it would be interesting to see the church as a Grade II listed building, with its Victorian east window by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, and the church furniture by Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson, with his trademark carved mice.
The parish website says Sunday services at Saint Clement’s are at 9 am, and so arrived at the church before 8:45, took photographs of the exterior, and hung around until 9 am. No-one came, the doors remained locked, and I headed into the city centre for the Sunng Eucharist at Saint Olave's Church, Marygate.
The south gabled porch at Saint Clement’s with double plank doors and ornate iron hinges in a moulded and banded pointed arch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Saint Clement’s is over 150 years old and was built in 1872-1874. But the story of the church and the parish dates back to a mediaeval church dedicated to Saint Clement that stood outside the city walls and that which gave its name to the suburb of Clementhorpe.
The mediaeval parish of Saint Clement, covering the area bounded by the city wall to the north, the River Ouse to the east, Knavesmire to the west and extending to Bishopthorpe to the south.
The district beside the city wall was known as Clementhorpe in 1070 and was probably named after the church. A church was a part of the Benedictine nunnery of Saint Clement 60 years later. The nunnery was founded by Archbishop Thurstan of York in 1130 and the church served both as the priory church and as the parish church for local people.
Saint Clement’s was the first monastic establishment in the North of England after the Norman Conquest. Clementhorpe began as a hamlet outside the city and became a considerable village.
At the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, Saint Clement’s Priory was the first to suffer under the Suppression Act of 1536, and was surrendered on 31 August 1536.
The priory church avoided destruction, becoming a parish church. However, it fell into ruin because of a falling population, and in 1585 the parish was united with Saint Mary, Bishophill Senior within the Walls.
After that, Saint Clement’s Church fell into ruin. The last stones from the church and priory buildings were removed in 1745 and were used to repair the walls.
The Victoria Bar was opened in the walls of York in 1840, over 30 years before Saint Clement’s Church was built on Scarcroft Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The 19th century brought much development and building in the area, and by the end of the century a new church had been built on Scarcroft Road as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary and dedicated to Saint Clement.
Dove Street, Swann Street and Dale Street were built between 1823 and 1830, and the lower portion of Nunnery Lane as well as Saint Clement’s Place were built up with houses. The residents of the new district called for an opening through the City Wall to give them access to Bishophill and their parish church, Saint Mary. In response, a subway was made through the mound under the wall in 1838, and this was replaced by the present Victoria Bar, opened in 1840.
Apart from the mansions of Nunthorpe and Middlethorpe the parish was truly local, with windmills on the highest ridge running through its centre – the Nunmill at one end and the Mount Mill at the other.
The arrival of the railway in 1839 and the development of the rail network created a demand for houses in the area. This demand increased when the Terry’s chocolate factory was built in 1864. The industrial growth in the area brought high density housing to the two areas of Clementhorpe and the area bounded by Nunnery Lane, the lower end of Bishopthorpe Road and Nunthorpe Road.
Soon after his appointment as the last rector of the united parishes in 1871, Canon George Marsham Argles saw the urgent need for a separate church for the densely populated areas and the anticipated further developments to the south.
The population of the parish of Saint Mary, Bishophill Senior, in the Clementhorpe Road and Bishopthorpe Road area, had grown from 1,227 in 1851 to 4,017 in the early 1870s, making it the parish with the fastest growing population in York.
The foundation stone of Saint Clement’s Church was laid on 16 October 1872, the new church was built in 1872-1874, and a vestry was added in 1880.
The east end of Saint Clement’s Church, designed by JB and W Atkinson of York, and the vestry added in 1880 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The church was designed by the York-based architects JB and W Atkinson. The brothers John Bownas Atkinson (1807-1874) and William Atkinson (1811-1886) were sons of the architect Peter Atkinson. JB Atkinson went into partnership with his father in 1831. That partnership was dissolved in 1833, but in 1837 JB Atkinson formed a partnership with his brother William. JB Atkinson was the first City Surveyor of York, from 1850 to 1854.
The Atkinson brothers designed a large number of buildings, mainly in Yorkshire. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner later described them as ‘producing many accomplished Classical buildings and a few less-assured Gothic churches’.
Saint Clement’s Church is built of red brick, with stone dressings and plinth and dark brick bands. It has angled buttresses, and a steep slate roof covering both the nave and chancel. The north corner of the gable is topped with a small, projecting octagonal bellcote with a short slated octagonal spire.
The south façade has a projecting gabled porch to the left with double plank doors and ornate iron hinges in a moulded and banded pointed arch. The north façade has a similar window arrangement to the south façade, but with a projecting gabled porch to the right.
The windows are lancets, those at the east and west ends having three lights, with two-light windows either side. The east end has a central tall three-light pointed arch window flanked by similar two-light windows, all with reticulated tracery.
The west end and vestry of Saint Clement’s Church, designed by JB and W Atkinson of York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Inside the church, I understand, the arcades are of brick, with stone piers and detailed stone capitals. There is a circular stone font, and an octagonal stone pulpit.
The stained glass in the east window was designed in 1875 by the Belgian stained glass painter Jean-Baptiste Capronnier (1814-1891).
The church has a tiled floor, a wooden roof and wooden pews. The reredos is by a Mr Thrupp in a frame by GW Milburn. The choir stalls and screen arlater, dating from the mid-20th and designed by Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson (1876-1955), who featured a carved mouse on almost every piece of his work.
One of Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson’s mice in in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Thompson was part of the 1920s revival of craftsmanship, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris, John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle. It is said his mouse motif came about accidentally in 1919 following a conversation about ‘being as poor as a church mouse’. His work in Ireland includes the lectern and railings in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick.
Saint Clement’s was given its own parish area in 1876. A vestry was added to the church in 1880.
Meanwhile, Saint Mary Bishophill Senior was demolished in 1963. Many of its fixtures were relocated to Saint Clement’s Church, including monuments, charity boards and two boards that record the terms of the architect John Carr as Lord Mayor of York, in 1770 and 1785.
• Saint Clement’s Church was Grade II listed in 2000. The Revd Simon Bray is priest-in-charge of the Bishopthorpe Road parishes, including Saint Clement’s Church, Scarcroft Road; Saint Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, South Bank, near York racecourse; and Saint Andrew’s Church, Bishopthorpe. The parish website says Sunday services at Saint Clement’s are at 9 am and are based on Morning Prayer most weeks, with the Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month.
The north corner of Saint Clement’s gable is topped with a small, projecting octagonal bellcote with a short slated octagonal spire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
21 January 2025
Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025:
28, Tuesday 21 January 2025
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … walking through the fields in Farewell, near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II), with readings that focussed on the Wedding at Cana, the third great Epiphany theme, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Christ.
Today is the Fourth Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Agnes (304), Child Martyr at Rome.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘He entered the house of God … and ate the bread of the Presence’ (Mark 2: 26) … 12 loaves of bread in two rows of six (see Leviticus 24: 5-9) in a fresco in the 17th century Kupa Synagogue in Kazimierz in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 2: 23-28 (NRSVA):
23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25 And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27 Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … grainfields near Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday (Mark 2: 18-22), we heard a wedding feast being used to illustrate a debate about feasting and fasting. That debate about the detailed interpretation and application of faith and practice continues in today’s reading (Mark 2: 23-28) about eating and the Sabbath.
We saw yesterday how feasting and fasting, food and ascetism, are important themes in the three Abrahamic faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Today’s reading (Mark 2: 23-28) begins when Christ is bypassing the grainfields and the disciples make their way through the fields. The religious law of the day accepted that as long as they are plucking the heads of grain and not harvesting it, they are allowed to do this, and there is no question of any theft (see Deuteronomy 23: 24-25).
We have all done something like this in a field: picked fruit growing on hedges or on trees; or we have done something like this in the kitchen, pouring cereal into a bowl and snatching a few lumps before even sitting down to eat breakfast.
So, what concerns the Pharisees in this story is not theft. They are worried that the disciples are gleaning on the Sabbath, and they challenge Christ about this. They claim this behaviour ignores the command to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy (see Exodus 20: 8; Deuteronomy 5: 12). Perhaps they thought the disciples could have prepared food the previous day to take with them.
Jesus disagrees, not because he is trivialising the laws about the Sabbath, but because he sees the Sabbath in a different light. He turns to a story about David when he is fleeing Saul who is plotting to kill him (see I Samuel 21: 1-6). David takes consecrated bread that was supposed to be part of the 12 loaves reserved for the priests (see Leviticus 24: 5-9) and feeds it to his followers who are on the journey with him.
By meeting the needs of David’s hunger, the priest sustains the life of a weary traveller and contributes to David’s quest to fulfil his calling to be the king anointed to replace Saul (see I Samuel 16: 1-13).
Why, in this story, does Jesus identify the priest who assists David as Abiathar? The Old Testament account (I Samuel 16) names the priest as Ahimelech. Who is mistaken in this passage … Jesus? Saint Mark? An unknown and unidentifiable redactor?
There are details here that are not in the original story: David was not explicitly acting from hunger, and he does not enter the house of God to eat the bread of the presence.
I have read many attempts to reconcile this Gospel account and the story of David, most of them setting out with the premise that the ‘inerrancy’ and ‘infallibility’ of Scripture must be defended at all costs, without seeking to debate the literary genre found in this passage.
Instead, I understand in this reading that Christ is displaying a sense of irony and a sense of humour. In a perfect example of what lawyers know as he loaded question, he asks his protagonists: ‘Have you never read what David did … when Abiathar was high priest?’ (verses 25-26).
If they say no, they show they have not read this story; if they say yes, they show are not truly familiar with the details of the story.
Christ then offers a legal opinion derived from scripture itself. He argues that sometimes certain demands of the law are rightly set aside in favour of greater values or needs, especially when those needs involve someone else’s well-being, and this can bring God’s blessings.
With his subtle sense of humour, Jesus challenges us when we are too straight-faced and humourless, and puts our minor interpretations of petty values before the real needs of others, and their sense of fun and enjoyment of life.
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … walking through cornfields in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 21 January 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 21 January 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord, we pray for the young people who participated in the ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ training. Fill their hearts with your peace and wisdom as they strive to become peacemakers in times of conflict. Like Abraham and Sarah, may they welcome strangers and work for justice, guided by your love and grace.
The Collect:
Eternal God, shepherd of your sheep,
whose child Agnes was strengthened to bear witness
in her living and her dying
to the true love of her redeemer:
grant us the power to understand, with all your saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth
and to know the love that surpasses knowledge,
even Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Agnes:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … summer fields in Chicheley, near Newport Pagnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II), with readings that focussed on the Wedding at Cana, the third great Epiphany theme, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Christ.
Today is the Fourth Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Agnes (304), Child Martyr at Rome.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘He entered the house of God … and ate the bread of the Presence’ (Mark 2: 26) … 12 loaves of bread in two rows of six (see Leviticus 24: 5-9) in a fresco in the 17th century Kupa Synagogue in Kazimierz in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 2: 23-28 (NRSVA):
23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25 And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27 Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … grainfields near Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday (Mark 2: 18-22), we heard a wedding feast being used to illustrate a debate about feasting and fasting. That debate about the detailed interpretation and application of faith and practice continues in today’s reading (Mark 2: 23-28) about eating and the Sabbath.
We saw yesterday how feasting and fasting, food and ascetism, are important themes in the three Abrahamic faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Today’s reading (Mark 2: 23-28) begins when Christ is bypassing the grainfields and the disciples make their way through the fields. The religious law of the day accepted that as long as they are plucking the heads of grain and not harvesting it, they are allowed to do this, and there is no question of any theft (see Deuteronomy 23: 24-25).
We have all done something like this in a field: picked fruit growing on hedges or on trees; or we have done something like this in the kitchen, pouring cereal into a bowl and snatching a few lumps before even sitting down to eat breakfast.
So, what concerns the Pharisees in this story is not theft. They are worried that the disciples are gleaning on the Sabbath, and they challenge Christ about this. They claim this behaviour ignores the command to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy (see Exodus 20: 8; Deuteronomy 5: 12). Perhaps they thought the disciples could have prepared food the previous day to take with them.
Jesus disagrees, not because he is trivialising the laws about the Sabbath, but because he sees the Sabbath in a different light. He turns to a story about David when he is fleeing Saul who is plotting to kill him (see I Samuel 21: 1-6). David takes consecrated bread that was supposed to be part of the 12 loaves reserved for the priests (see Leviticus 24: 5-9) and feeds it to his followers who are on the journey with him.
By meeting the needs of David’s hunger, the priest sustains the life of a weary traveller and contributes to David’s quest to fulfil his calling to be the king anointed to replace Saul (see I Samuel 16: 1-13).
Why, in this story, does Jesus identify the priest who assists David as Abiathar? The Old Testament account (I Samuel 16) names the priest as Ahimelech. Who is mistaken in this passage … Jesus? Saint Mark? An unknown and unidentifiable redactor?
There are details here that are not in the original story: David was not explicitly acting from hunger, and he does not enter the house of God to eat the bread of the presence.
I have read many attempts to reconcile this Gospel account and the story of David, most of them setting out with the premise that the ‘inerrancy’ and ‘infallibility’ of Scripture must be defended at all costs, without seeking to debate the literary genre found in this passage.
Instead, I understand in this reading that Christ is displaying a sense of irony and a sense of humour. In a perfect example of what lawyers know as he loaded question, he asks his protagonists: ‘Have you never read what David did … when Abiathar was high priest?’ (verses 25-26).
If they say no, they show they have not read this story; if they say yes, they show are not truly familiar with the details of the story.
Christ then offers a legal opinion derived from scripture itself. He argues that sometimes certain demands of the law are rightly set aside in favour of greater values or needs, especially when those needs involve someone else’s well-being, and this can bring God’s blessings.
With his subtle sense of humour, Jesus challenges us when we are too straight-faced and humourless, and puts our minor interpretations of petty values before the real needs of others, and their sense of fun and enjoyment of life.
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … walking through cornfields in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 21 January 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 21 January 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord, we pray for the young people who participated in the ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ training. Fill their hearts with your peace and wisdom as they strive to become peacemakers in times of conflict. Like Abraham and Sarah, may they welcome strangers and work for justice, guided by your love and grace.
The Collect:
Eternal God, shepherd of your sheep,
whose child Agnes was strengthened to bear witness
in her living and her dying
to the true love of her redeemer:
grant us the power to understand, with all your saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth
and to know the love that surpasses knowledge,
even Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Agnes:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘As they made their way [through the cornfields] his disciples began to pluck heads of grain’ (Mark 2: 23) … summer fields in Chicheley, near Newport Pagnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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