13 October 2023

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time
with USPG: (138) 13 October 2023

The Anglo-Saxon tower of Saint Michael at the North Gate is one of the distinctive landmarks in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 8 October 2023).

Today (13 October), the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Edward the Confessor, King of England, 1066.

Before the day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer and reflection.

The Church recently celebrated Saint Michael and All Angels last month (29 September). So in my reflections each morning this week I am continuing the Michaelmas theme of the last two weeks in this way:

1, A reflection on a church named after Saint Michael or his depiction in Church Art;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Michael at the North Gate may be the oldest building in Oxford (Photograph Patrick Comerford)

Saint Michael at the North Gate, Oxford:

Saint Michael at the North Gate stands on Cornmarket Street, at the junction with Ship Street, on the site of the north gate of Oxford when it was surrounded by a city wall.

The church claims to be Oxford’s oldest building. It was first built ca 1000-1050, and the Anglo-Saxon tower, dating from 1040, is one of the distinctive landmarks of Oxford.

However, all other traces of the original church are long disappeared. Apart from the tower, the earliest surviving parts of the church are the chancel, the east part of the south aisle, nearest the altar, and the south door, all dating from the 13th century.

The east window in the chancel contains four panels of high quality stained glass dating from the 13th century, and this is some of the earliest stained glass in Oxford.

The Lady Chapel and the north transept, where the organ is now located, were added in the 14th century. The north aisle and the nave date from the 15th century.

The Oxford Martyrs were imprisoned in the Bocardo Prison by the church before they were burnt at the stake nearby in what is now Broad Street, then immediately outside the city walls, in 1555 and 1556. Their cell door is on display in the tower.

The pulpit in the church dates from the 15th century and John Wesley preached from it in 1726.

Saint Michael’s location in the heart of the city left it open to a constant process of demolition, rebuilding and enlargement. Some of Oxford’s leading citizens, as well as scholars and undergraduates from neighbouring colleges, are commemorated on the wall plaques and memorials in the church.

William Morris and Jane Burden were married in the church on 25 April 1859.

The architect John Plowman rebuilt the north aisle and transept in 1833. The church was substantially restored by the architect George Edmund Street in the 19th century, and again after a near disastrous fire in 1953. Since then, the largest and most ambitious project has been the restoration of the tower in 1986.

Since 1971, Saint Michael’s has been as the ceremonial City Church of Oxford, regularly attended by the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford. That title was originally held by Saint Martin’s Church at Carfax, which was demolished in 1896, and then by All Saints’ Church in the High Street, which was declared redundant in 1971 and was converted into the library of Lincoln College.

The font is from Saint Martin’s Church at Carfax and may have been seen by William Shakespeare, who stood at a baptism in Saint Martin’s as godfather to the son of an Oxford friend.

Visitors can climb the tower, passing the church’s six large bells, and from the roof there are panoramic views of the ‘Dreaming Spires’ of Oxford and beyond.

The parishes of Saint Martin’s and All Saints’ are now amalgamated with Saint Michael’s. The ‘beating the bounds’ ceremony takes place each year on Ascension Day to mark out the boundaries of the parish.

• The Revd Anthony Buckley is the Vicar of Saint Michael at the North Gate and City Rector of Oxford. Saint Michael’s Church, the Tower and the Visitor Centre are open every day, usually from 9 am to 5 pm. The Choir sings at Matins or Holy Communion on Sundays at 10:30 am.

Inside Saint Michael at the North Gate in Oxford, facing the west end (Photograph Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 15-26 (NRSVA):

15 But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ 16 Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. 22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’

The Lady Chapel in the north aisle of Saint Michael’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer (Friday 13 October 2023):

Today’s Prayer:

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 ‘After the Storm.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (13 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the dioceses of Zambezia, Niassa, Rio Pungwe, and Nampula may their churches be places of refuge for those in need.

The Collect:

Sovereign God,
who set your servant Edward
upon the throne of an earthly kingdom
and inspired him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven:
grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ
by word and deed,
that we may, with all your saints, inherit your eternal glory;
through 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:

God our redeemer,
who inspired Edward to witness to your love
and to work for the coming of your kingdom:
may we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven,
be fired by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living
and never to rest content until your kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The reredos in the Lady Chapel dates from the late 13th century, but the figures were added in 1938 (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

Saint George in the World War I memorial window by Beatrice French (née Cameron) in the north aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The King’s Manor
is a collection of
mediaeval buildings
in the heart of York

The King’s Manor in the centre of York is part of the University of York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The King’s Manor is an attractive and unusual group of mediaeval buildings in the centre of York, beside the York Art Gallery at Exhibition Square and near Bootham Bar.

Today, the King’s Manor is at the heart of York’s strong academic reputation for teaching and research in archaeology, mediaeval studies and 18th century studies at the University of York. But in the past, the site has been the house of the abbots of Saint Mary’s Abbey, the seat of government in Tudor and Stuart York, a private residence in the 18th century and a school in the 19th century.

Saint Mary’s Abbey was founded by the Benedictines in 1088 and rebuilt in 1271 just outside York's city walls. The King’s Manor was originally built to house the abbots of the abbey, and stands east and south-east of the abbey church. Although the earliest parts of the buildings date from the 15th century, the first house on the site was probably built ca 1270 for Simon de Warwick, Abbot of Saint Mary’s (1258-1296).

Archaeological evidence suggests the house was U-shaped and of the same extent as the later mediaeval rebuilding. The outer West Range stands in part on the site of the chapter house of Saint Mary's Abbey, and a fragment of rough walling near the north end of the end front may represent the east wall of the chapter house.

The King’s Manor stands on the site of the house of the abbots of Saint Mary’s Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The house as it now stands is mostly a rebuilding of the late 15th century. The work, usually assigned to Abbot William Sever (1485-1502), was begun by his predecessor Abbot Thomas Boothe in 1483. The building work was continued by Abbot Sever until he became Bishop of Durham in 1502.

At the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, the Abbey of Saint Mary’s, York, was formally surrendered on 29 November 1539. The house became Saint Mary’s Manor or the King’s Manor and by 17 December 1539 it was the seat of the Council of the North.

Henry VIII visited York with Queen Katherine Howard in 1541, and lived there for 12 days. In anticipation of the royal visit, the city repaired and improved the house. The royal party stayed there for 12 days, and it was this visit that gives the building its popular name, King’s Manor.

A survey shortly before Henry VIII died in 1547 shows that many of the abbey buildings still remained, but the church and most of the former monastic buildings were roofless. One of the few buildings to be listed ‘in good state’ was the gatehouse by Saint Olave’s Church.

The south doorway has an elaborate stone surround with the initials of James I and Charles I and a large heraldic panel with the arms of Charles I (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

In the past, it was thought that Henry VIII had a palace built between the abbot’s house and the river and that it was ruined a few years later. But architectural evidence suggests 1600-1620 as the correct date.

A plaster frieze around the walls of the Huntingdon Room, the former Council Chamber, contains three motifs: a pomegranate between two wyverns, the crest of Hastings; a bull's head erased gorged with a ducal coronet between two Hs all within a garter under an earl’s coronet, for Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, President of the Council of the North 1572-1595; and a bear and ragged staff for his wife Lady Catherine Dudley, daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. A magnificent fireplace has a segmental head formed of carved stone voussoirs and ornamented pilaster jambs.

Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley, was President of the Council of the North when Elizabeth I died in 1603. He wrote to Sir Robert Cecil that he had moved out of the house, so that the new king, James I, could stay there on his journey from Scotland south to London. The house was empty of furnishings and ‘quite out of order.’ Lord Burghley stocked the wine cellars and larders.

King James came to the ‘Manor of Saint Mary’s’ in 1603 and stayed in York for three days. On that first visit to York, James I ordered the house to be embellished. Lord Sheffield, President of the North (1603-1619), repaired the King’s Manor in 1609.

The last great building period at the King’s Manor was when Thomas Wentworth (1593-1641), Earl of Strafford, was President of the North (1628-1641). He added the external staircase and the doorway with the arms of Charles I over it in 1633, put new windows in the hall, and added a gallery and a chapel.

Wentworth’s south doorway has an elaborate stone surround bearing the initials IR for James I and, above, a large heraldic panel with the initials CR for Charles I. The niche above the arms probably contained a bust. The north doorway dates from 1480 but has a stone surround dating from 1610 brought from the W. elevation and reset.

Charles I stayed at the King’s Manor when he visited York in 1633 and 1639, when Wentworth expressed the hope that Saint Mary’s Abbey would once again become a church.

Charles I stayed at the King’s Manor when he visited York in 1633 and 1639 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Strafford was executed in 1641, the Council of the North was abolished, and no major additions were made to the manor after that until the 19th century.

The place was caught up in the siege of York and at least one range, the outer one to the west, was half demolished. In 1644, the Parliamentarians exploded a mine that blew up the corner tower of the abbey precinct wall on Bootham, attacked the manor house and captured 100 people, before retreating with the loss of 300 men. By 1653, it was reported that the King’s Manor which had been spoiled and wasted.

But the King’s Manor was repaired and kept habitable. Humphrey Harwood was still living in the manor in 1662. Henry Darcy, who became keeper in 1665, repaired the house and its rooms and chambers.

The Manor became the official residence of Lord Freschville, Governor of the City of York, in 1667, and he lived there with a family or household of 30 people. From 1667 to 1688, the manor was the residence of the Governor of York

The manor was leased to Father Francis Lawson, one of the King’s chaplains in 1687. He converted the manor into a ‘Popish School’ and used the hall or Councill Chamber as a chapel. During the Williamite rebellion in 1688, the Governor, Sir John Reresby, remained loyal to King James II. But an armed party led by Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, captured the Manor and the City of York, and held them for William of Orange. Lawson fled as a Jacobite exile.

After 1688, the building was hired out to private tenants, including Ralph Rymer, Robert Waller, and Sir Tancred Robinson. In the early 18th century, parts of the King’s Manor were occupied by the artist Francis Place, and a Mr Lumley who ran a boarding school.

The Banqueting Hall, which had been Lawson’s chapel in the late 17th century, was converted into an Assembly Room and was also used by the High Sheriffs to entertain their friends during the assizes and races.

An ornately carved Jacobean doorway in the King’s Manor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The York Diocesan Society and National School leased part of the manor in 1812 from Lord de Grey, and the Manor National School opened in January 1813.

The Yorkshire School for the Blind was founded in 1833 and moved into the King’s Manor, although the Manor National School also remained on the site until 1922. While the Blind School was there, a new headmaster’s house was built in 1899. It was designed in a Jacobean style by Walter Brierley. For a long time, a statue of the abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833), founder of the school, stood in the entrance.

The Blind School remained there until 1956. The City of York acquired the King’s Manor in 1958. It was restored, modernised and extended in 1963-1964 for the University of York by William Birch and Sons of York under the direction of the architects Feilden and Mawson of Norwich in association with Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners.

The main university later moved to the Heslington Campus. The Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies (IoAAS) was the main academic department to use the Manor from 1966. There were several other departments in the King’s Manor, including the Centre for Mediaeval Studies, a Language Teaching centre and the Design Unit, an architectural practice. The building also housed six university staff flats.

Since 1997, the main occupants have been the Department of Archaeology, the Archaeology Data Service, the Centre for Mediaeval Studies and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies.

The City of York acquired the King’s Manor in 1958 and it was restored, modernised and extended for the University of York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)