Daily prayers in Advent with Leonard Cohen and USPG: (2) 4 December 2023

‘If it be your will / If there is a choice / Let the rivers fill / Let the hills rejoice’ (Leonard Cohen) … the River Nidd at Knaresborough in Yorkshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The countdown to Christmas began officially in the Church yesterday with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint John of Damascus (ca 749), Monk, Teacher of the Faith, and Nicholas Ferrar (1637), Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community.

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

Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Leonard Cohen on stage in Dublin at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 2, ‘If it be your will’:

I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’

So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.

And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’

I was at most of Leonard Cohen’s concerts in Ireland. He ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:

Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.

If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.

If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?

The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.

Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God.

But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.

Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.

In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.

The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.

‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.

If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.

Advent is a time of waiting. The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’

But at the grave, at times of desolation, at times when there is no answer, we may also be called to be silent.

Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

‘Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 13: 11) … a new interpretation by Kelly Latimore of Andrei Rublev’s icon ‘The Visitation of Abraham’

Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’

‘From this broken hill / All your praises they shall ring / If it be your will’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the mountains above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 December 2023):

The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit into the Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow


‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London

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

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (114) 19 September 2023

‘Together we can be a mighty river of justice and peace’ … a peaceful walk by the River Nidd in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 17 September 2023). We are also in the Season of Creation.

The Calendar of the Church of England today recalls the life and witness of Theodore of Tarsus (690), Archbishop of Canterbury. Before today begins (19 September 2023), I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

This week, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Reflecting on a theme in this Season of Creation, the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The theme of the Season of Creation this year is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow’

A mighty torrent can move mountains:

The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation: the ecumenical family around the world unites to listen and care for our common home, the Oikos of God.

The Season of Creation began on 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and it ends on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations.

Each year, the Season of Creation Ecumenical Steering Committee proposes a theme for the Season of Creation. This year, the theme is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow,’ and the symbol is ‘A Mighty River’.

Our individual actions during the Season of Creation are important. Celebrating creation, taking part in clean-ups, planting trees, and reducing our carbon footprint are some of the immediate actions we can take.

We must also recognise that as we need a mighty movement of justice, individual actions are no longer enough. Justice also includes paying historic debts. At a global level, nations with power and wealth have a duty to deal justly and honestly with communities that suffer most from the climate and ecological crises. They have not dealt righteously with their less wealthy neighbours in global forums. They have not fulfilled their promises of financing the losses and damages that vulnerable communities are suffering from, or funding necessary biodiversity initiatives in less wealthy nations, nor have they made the necessary sacrifices to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming.

Nevertheless, Global South nations, working together for more than 30 years, managed to win a victory at COP27 in making wealthier nations realise their moral duty to provide financing for loss and damage.

The recent decisions at COP15 to preserve biodiversity are also hopeful and require similar perseverance. The new UN Treaty on Oceans marks a historic moment for protecting marine biodiversity in international waters, adding to the hope of more persistent global responses to the climate crisis. These victories have been achieved by those with less power working together.

Together we can be a mighty river of justice and peace, that brings new life to earth and future generations, a river that can move the mountains of injustice.

Find out more about the Season of Creation HERE.

‘Our individual actions during the Season of Creation are important’ … street art in Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Luke 7: 11-17 (NRSVA):

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

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 ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (19 September 2023) invites us to reflect in these words:

Let us pray for all who are teaching us to care for creation and for the growing realisation we must all work together to care for Earth.

The Collect:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow</b>

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

You never know what you can find at the back of an old railway station

The Mitre behind the railway station in Knaresborough … but which bishop is it named after? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Knaresborough railway station is a Grade II listed station at the north side of the Knaresborough Viaduct. The traditional buildings on the east-bound platform have been turned into commercial use, including a café in the old booking office and a shop selling old memorabilia. The unusual station signal box was built in 1890 built onto the end of an adjoining row of terraced houses.

But while Charlotte and I were waiting there earlier this month to catch the train back to York, my eyes were caught by the Mitre Hotel beside the station.

The Bishops of Ripon are suffragan bishops in the Diocese of Leeds, but were known as the Bishops of Knaresborough from 1909 until 2015. The Bishops of Knaresborough included Frank Weston (1935-2003), who was Bishop of Knaresborough in the then Diocese of Ripon and Leeds in 1997-2003, and a nephew of the leading Anglo-Catholic bishop, Frank Weston, Bishop of Zanzibar.

The Mitre sits on the site of a former public house, the Wheatsheaf, that was rebuilt ca 1923. I wondered which Bishop of Knaresborough the pub had been named after. But a plaque on the wall soon explained: ‘The name is an acknowledgement to the high churchman Bishop William Stubbs (1825-1901), distinguished theologian, ecclesiastical historian and Bishop of Oxford, born in the town.’

William Stubbs (1825-1901) was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford in 1866-1884, Bishop of Chester (1884-1889) and Bishop of Oxford (1889-1901).

William Stubbs was born on 21 June 1825 in a house on the High Street, Knaresborough, the son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, and his wife, Mary Ann Henlock. He was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated MA in 1848, obtaining a first-class in Literae Humaniores and a third in mathematics.

Stubbs was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Oxford while he was the Rector of Navestock, Essex (1850-1866). He married Catherine Dellar, daughter of John Dellar of Navestock, in 1859, and they were the parents of several children. He was librarian at Lambeth Palace, and in 1862 was he an unsuccessful candidate for the Chichele Professorship of Modern History at Oxford.

Stubbs was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1866, and with the post he was ex officio a Fellow of Oriel College. He held the chair until 1884. His lectures were thinly attended, and he found them a distraction from his historical work. Some of his statutory lectures are published in his Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History.

He founded the Oxford University School of Modern History in 1872, allowing postclassical history to be taught as a distinct subject for the first time. He accepted the patronage of the Stubbs Society during his time at Oxford.

Stubbs was rector of Cholderton, Wiltshire, from 1875 to 1879, when he was appointed a canon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. He served on the ecclesiastical courts commission in 1881-1883 and wrote the weighty appendices to the report.

William Stubbs, who gives name to The Mitre, was Bishop of Chester and of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

He became Bishop of Chester in 1884 and was Bishop of Oxford from 1889 until his death. As Bishop of Oxford he was also Chancellor of the Order of the Garter. He was a member of the Chetham Society, and served as vice-president from 1884.

Stubbs was a High Churchman, and he acted as an assessor to the archbishop in the trial of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln.

An attack of illness in November 1900 was serious blow to Stubbs. However, he attended the funeral of Queen Victoria on 2 February 1901, and preached before King Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II on the following day.

Stubbs’s illness became critical on 20 April. He died in Cuddesdon on 22 April 1901, and he was buried at All Saints’ Church, Cuddesdon, next to the palace of the Bishops of Oxford.

In England, the US and throughout Europe, Stubbs was regarded in his day as the leading English historical scholar. Among his many distinctions he was DD and honorary DCL of Oxford, LLD of Cambridge and Edinburgh, held honorary doctorates from Heidelberg and Kyiv, and he was an honorary member of academies in Prussia, Bavaria, Denmark, France and the US.

Stubbs argued that the theory of the unity and continuity of history should not remove distinctions between ancient and modern history. He believed that work on ancient history is a useful preparation for the study of modern history, but either may advantageously be studied apart. He also believed that the effects of individual character and human nature will render generalisations vague and useless.

While arguing that history is useful as a mental discipline and a part of a liberal education, he recommended its study chiefly for its own sake.

Stubbs published his Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum in 1858, with a second edition in 1897, setting forth episcopal consecration data in England from the year 597. This was followed by many other later works, and particularly by his share in Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, edited with the Revd AW Haddan. He also edited 19 volumes for the Rolls series of Chronicles and Memorials.

However, Stubbs is best remembered for his three-volume Constitutional History of England (1874-1878), once the standard authority on the subject. It was followed by a companion volume, Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History.

In his day, Stubbs was regarded as being in the front rank of historical scholars, both as an author and a critic, However, his work is not entirely unquestionable. Some modern historians question his acceptance of some mediaeval chronicles, written by monastical scribes whose views were influenced by Church politics at the time.

Stubbs’s ideas of a confrontational political framework have been superseded by KB McFarlane’s ‘community of interest’ theory. He is seen by many today as an historical scholar with little or no experience of public affairs, with views of the present that were romantically historicised. They say he was drawn to history by an antiquarian passion for the past, as well as a patriotic and populist impulse to identify the nation and its institutions as the collective subject of English history.

The Mitre in Knaresborough was also the birthplace of local philanthropist and entrepreneur George A Moore (1928-2016), whose was the landlord. Moore formed a joinery and coach building business that expanded the company into manufacturing high quality kitchen furniture, and Moore’s Furniture Group employed hundreds of people near Wetherby.

The George A Moore Foundation began as a staff welfare fund in 1970 and has become a well-respected grant-making foundation. It continues to support charities, mainly in the Yorkshire area.

As for the Stubbs Society for Foreign Affairs and Defence, commonly known as the Stubbs Society, it remains Oxford’s oldest officially affiliated paper-reading and debating society. It is the university’s forum for scholarship in international history, strategic policy and foreign affairs, and has welcomed many prominent speakers, including Home Secretaries, Lords Chancellor, Archbishops of Canterbury, world leaders, Nobel laureates, Victoria Cross recipients, journalists and academics.

The Railway Station in Knaresborough maintains its traditional appearance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

An afternoon visit to the churches and chapels in Knaresborough

Saint John the Baptist Church is the largest church in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

When Charlotte and I were visiting Knaresborough earlier in mid-May, one of the first places I wanted to visit was the site in the Market Place of Knaresborough’s medieval synagogue, recalled in a plaque at the entry to Synagogue Lane, beside the library.

Knaresborough has at least churches, including two Church of England churches, Saint John the Baptist and Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic church, Saint Mary’s, a Methodist and a United Reformed church, and a number of mediaeval chapels.

So, as we walked around Knaresborough, we visited a number of the churches and chapels in this town by the gorge of the River Nidd and the railway viaduct in North Yorkshire.

‘Redeeming the Time’ … the clock and sundial on the tower of Saint John the Baptist Church in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

1, Saint John the Baptist Church:

Saint John the Baptist Church on Church Lane, just off Bond End and High Street, is the largest church in Knaresborough. This beautiful mediaeval church is a hidden gem and a treasure house at the heart of this market town in North Yorkshire. Although we arrived late in the afternoon, the church is usually open every day all year round.

There may have been a church on the site in the late Saxon period. But the first written record dates from 1114, when Henry I granted the church at ‘Cnaresburgh’ to the Augustinian canons of Nostell Priory.

Originally it was a cruciform church with a central tower, Much of the church dates from the 15th century, although it incorporates parts of an earlier 12th century building.

There are visible signs of the early church in the string course of brickwork and in the blocked up windows in the chancel, which is flanked on either side by 13th century chapels. The church was first dedicated to Saint Mary and kept that dedication until the Reformation, when it was rededicated to Saint John the Baptist.

The church has good Early English features in the chancel, a late-mediaeval font, a 17th-century font cover, a Jacobean parclose screen, a Perpendicular font with a late 17th century cover, and 17th century memorials in the Slingsby family chapel.

The church developed independently of the castle and had close links with the growth of the town. The church was damaged by Scottish in 1318, andwas still in a poor state a decade later in 1328, when Edward III spent part of his honeymoon with Queen Philippa at Knaresborough Castle.

The king promised his bride he would finance rebuilding the church, and Queen Philippa took a close interest in the project. She was involved in rebuilding Saint Edmund’s Chantry, now Saint Edmund’s Chapel, the townspeople dubbed the restored building ‘the Queen’s Church.’

The priest of Saint Mary’s in 1428 was John Mason, which suggests a link to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, a wayside chapel cut into the cliffs above the River Nidd and below the castle. According to local lore, the chapel was built by John the Mason, a master mason working for Henry IV who built it in thanks after his son was saved from death in a rockfall at the quarry where John was working. Was John Mason that same boy?

A memorials shows Sir Henry Slingsby (1560-1634) wrapped in his shroud and standing upright under a niche. Also standing upright under a niche is an effigy of Sir William Slingsby, who died in 1638. In the centre of the chapel is a tomb chest with effigies of Sir Francis de Slingsby (died 1601) and his wife Lady Mary Percy (died 1598), a daughter of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland who was beheaded for treason by Elizabeth I in 1572.

The church was restored in 1878, and has stained glass by the William Morris studio.

Holy Trinity Church, Briggate, was inspired by the Catholic Revival in the mid-19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

2, Holy Trinity Church, Briggate:

The spire of Holy Trinity Church can be seen for miles around, and is a Victorian Gothic gem, hidden behind an archway.

Holy Trinity Church was built on land given by the Slingsby family, and was consecrated in August 1856. It offered 612 free places in its pews to serve the town’s expanding industrial population. Inspired by the Catholic Revival, its architecture focuses in the High Altar. The spire, 166 ft above ground level and a familiar feature of the local skyline, was added to the tower in 1864.

Holy Trinity Church was built in the 14th century Gothic style, with a north-west tower, a six-bay aisled nave with clerestory and north porch, a three-bay chancel with a north vestry and a three-stage tower. <=br />
We did not get inside the church this time, but I understand the interior details include arcaded piers, foliate capitals, double-chamfered pointed arches with head stoops, and an elaborate carved and gilded stone reredos with heads of Apostles and symbols of the Passion.

There once was a chapel to the left of the Tudor Courthouse in the grounds of Knaresborough Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

3, Knaresborough Castle chapel:

The Tudor Courthouse still stands in the grounds of Knaresborough Castle. Display boards illustrated by Caroline Miekina on the site show there was a chapel to the left of the courthouse.

The chapel and the lodging were replaced in the 1700s, when the east end of the courthouse building was extended and used as a prison.

The Methodist Church, Gracious Street … the Methodist presence in Knaresborough dates from 1742 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

4, The Methodist Church, Gracious Street:

The name ‘Gracious Street’ has been associated with the Methodist Chapel in Knaresborough for many years.

The attractive name of ‘Gracious Street’ has it roots in an Anglo-Saxon word that means ‘ditch houses’ and that refers to the houses built alongside the town ditch, which was probably an open sewer.

John Wesley visited Knaresborough on 27 May 1742 on his way to Newcastle. A small group soon began to meet and the people called Methodists grew in numbers. A small meeting house had been built at Bond End by 1795, and as numbers grew a larger building was needed, precipitating a move to Gracious Street in 1815.

A large galleried Victorian chapel opened on the site in 1868, with a day school and a Sunday school. The Victorian building became difficult to manage by the end of the 1960s, and it was demolished and rebuilt. The present church on Gracious Street is the third on the site was built in 1975, incorporating parts of the original 1815 building.

The last phase of building work was completed in 2009, when the worship area and halls were linked together. The building was refurbished in 2014, and Gracious Street Methodist Church is known locally as ‘COGS’ (the Centre on Gracious Street).

The former Primitive Methodist Chapel on High Street, now divided into flats (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

5, The Primitive Methodist Chapel, High Street:

The Primitive Methodist Chapel on High Street was built in the 1850s, and a plaque on the building states it was built in 1851.

The chapel premises were used by a coat manufacturer for a good part of the 20th century.

The chapel was converted into four flats in 2001.

The pathway leading up to Our Lady of the Rocks above the River Nidd and below the castle cliff (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

6, Our Lady of the Rocks, Abbey Street:

The tiny mediaeval Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, close to the River Nidd, is in an old quarry on Abbey Road, about half a mile from the centre of Knaresborough. It was carved from the cliff face below the castle by John the Mason in 1408, during the reign of Henry IV.

The chapel may have been built as a wayside shrine for pilgrims walking between the town and the priory. It would also have been a place of quiet and prayer for the workers in the nearby quarry.

One version of the legend says John the Mason was working in the nearby quarry when he saw that a rock fall was about to engulf and kill his son. Unable to reach him in time, he prayed to the Virgin Mary and miraculously the stones changed direction and his son was saved. John the Mason pledged to create a chapel as thanks for the miracle.

The chapel is now a Grade I Listed Building reached along a narrow path and steps. The chapel has a carved altar with a canopied niche, gargoyles, a vaulted ceiling, roof bosses, pillars with floriate capitals, a Celtic head, a piscina and externally a large carving of a mediaeval knight guards the entrance.

The figure of the knight may be contemporaneous with the chapel, although some sources date it to 1695-1739. William Wordsworth mentions it in 1814. The head the knight is separate from the body and may have been re-carved in the Victorian times.

The chapel become the property of Ampleforth Abbey and was reconsecrated in 1916 as a Catholic place of worship. Three carved heads located on the right-hand wall were taken away at this time, and a new statue of Our Lady of the Crag.

The chapel suffered from vandalism in 2019, and the glass in the mediaeval window frames was smashed. But the windows have been conserved, the figure of the mediaeval knight has been restored, a modern statue of Madonna and Child has been placed in the shrine, and the shrine regularly hosts ecumenical services.

Saint John the Baptist Church in Knaresborough, seen from the north-east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A stroll beneath Knaresborough viaduct and a search for Mother Shipton

The railway viaduct in Knaresborough was built with castellated walls and piers to blend in with the ruins of Knaresborough Castle and opened in 1851 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Knaresborough is full of surprises with its castle and town centre perched on cliffs above the River Nidd, offering breath-taking views of the railway viaduct across the Nidd Gorge.

Charlotte and I visited Knaresborough earlier this month, hopping off the train journey between Harrogate and York, and exploring the castle ruins, the warren of mediaeval streets, ancient walkways, cobbled alleys, secret passageways and the stone staircases that weave their way up and down the hill.

Knaresborough is a market and spa town and is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Chenaresburg, meaning ‘Cenheard’s fortress.’ The town developed around the castle from around 1100 as a market town. The parish church, Saint John’s, dates from the same time.

Knaresborough Castle remains a royal possession as part of the Duchy of Lancaster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Hugh de Morville, who was granted Knaresborough in 1158, led the band of four knights who murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170. They fled to Knaresborough and hid at the castle.

Knaresborough Forest once stretched far to the south of the town, is was one of King John’s favourite hunting grounds. When the Stuteville family died out in 1205, King John seized the opportunity to grab Knaresborough for himself. The first Maundy Money was distributed in Knaresborough by King John on 15 April 1210.

Edward III granted Knaresborough, including the castle, town and forest, to Queen Philippa in 1328 as part of their marriage settlement. It then passed to their younger son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and ever since the castle has been a royal possession as part of the Duchy of Lancaster.

The Parliamentarians ordered the destruction of the castle in the 1640s, but it was destroyed mainly by residents looting the stone, and many buildings in the town centre are built of castle stone.

A sculpture of Mother Shipton in the Market Place in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Market Place is filled on Wednesdays with stalls selling tasty produce, wholefoods, plants and flowers. But it was a Thursday afternoon, and it had been raining earlier in the day. There, however, we viewed the sculptures of two of Knaresborough’s legendary characters, Blind Jack and Mother Shipton.

Blind Jack or John Metcalf (1717-1810) was born in a cottage beside the churchyard in Knaresborough. He was blinded by smallpox at the age of six, but grew to be a famous musician, guide, horseman, trader and pioneer builder of roads.

A plaque in Market Place marks the site of the 13th century synagogue at the exit to Synagogue Lane. The Jewish community in Knaresborough was dissolved in 1275, before Jews were expelled from England by Edward I in 1290.

The oldest chemist shop in England opened in 1720 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Here too is the oldest chemist shop in England. It opened over 300 years ago in 1720, when John Beckwith was the apothecary. The shop was especially famous under WP Lawrence and his son Edmund from 1884 to 1965, but ceased to be a pharmacy in 1997.

On a beam above the doorway are the intriguing words: ‘When I came to explain to them the ‘Nelson touch’ it was like an electric shock. It was new. It was singular. It was simple. It must Succeed!’ Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton.

While he was on shore leave in England in the summer of 1805, Nelson told his friend Lord Sidmouth about his ideas for his next sea battle at Trafalgar, describing these plans as the ‘Nelson Touch.’ After Nelson’s death, the phrase took on a broader meaning relating to his leadership style. But Nelson also wrote in a private letter to Lady Hamilton about ‘the Nelson Touch.’

The ‘Nelson Touch’ has since been interpreted as an innuendo, seen by some as a private sexual joke between the two.

I was intrigued, though, that, 60 miles inland from the sea, words from Britain’s most famous admiral were emblazoned above the door of a chemist’s shop, and that remains above a sweet shop and café.

Strolling beneath the railway viaduct and along the promenade at Waterside (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

From the Market Place and the former almshouse at ‘Six Poor Folk,’ we made our way back down Kirkgate to the base of the cliffs to visit Saint John’s Church.

We walked beneath the railway viaduct and continued to stroll along the promenade at Waterside, gazing across the River Nidd at Mother Shipton’s Cave, and continuing on by the cafés and rowing boats.

We passed the House in the Rock, also known as Fort Montague, a local curiosity with tales of ‘the Woolly-Headed Boy,’ a strange child who lived there in the early 19th century.

But we failed in our efforts that afternoon to find our way up to the tiny mediaeval Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag.

The Mother Shipton Inn by the Low Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

We returned to the Mother Shipton Inn by the Low Bridge to hear more about Mother Shipton and her legendary links with Knaresborough. The 15th century pub beside the river retains an old world charm, and also boasts a table from Scotton Hall that belonged to Guy Fawkes in 1592 and a deed chest that belonged to Sir Henry Slingsby of Knaresborough, a royalist who was beheaded on Tower Hill in London on 8 June 1658.

The pub takes its name from Ursula Southeil (1488-1561), popularly known as Mother Shipton, who is hailed in local lore as a soothsayer or a prophetess. She has sometimes been described as a witch and is associated in folklore with foreseeing and predicting the future.

The first known edition of her prophecies dates from 1641, 80 years after her death. This suggests that what was published was legendary or mythical. One of the most notable editions of her prophecies was published in 1684. It gave her birthplace as the cave in Knaresborough now known as Mother Shipton’s Cave. The book said Mother Shipton was hideously ugly, that she had married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512.

Mother Shipton’s portrait in the Mother Shipton Inn by the Low Bridge in Kanresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Samuel Pepys was said to have told the royal family that Mother Shipton foretold the Great Fire of London. She is also credited with predicting the Tudor Reformation, the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the reign of ‘Bloody Mary’ and the ascent of Queen Elizabeth.

Some accounts claim she even predicted the invention of aircraft, television, radio, telephones and the internet, the building of dams and the harnessing of waterfalls for hydroelectric power.

Instead of trying to verify her predictions, we had a drink beneath her portrait above Henry Slingsby’s deed chest and Guy Fawkes table before walking back to catch the train back to York.

Stage 2 of the Tour de France from York to Sheffield passed through Knaresborough in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Searching for a mediaeval Jewish community and synagogue in Knaresborough

A plaque in Market Place commemorates the 13th century synagogue in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

During our visit to York this week, two of us spent much of yesterday afternoon in Knaresborough, a market and spa town on the River Nidd in North Yorkshire, 5 km east of Harrogate.

Knaresborough appears in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Chenaresburg, meaning ‘Cenheards fortress.’ Knaresborough Castle is Norman and dates from ca 1100. The town grew up around the castle, providing a market and attracting traders.

A plaque in Market Place, placed by the Knaresborough Civic Society in 2008, commemorates the 13th century synagogue to the rear of the Market Place. This plaque indicates that a Jewish community lived and worshipped in Knaresborough in the 13th century. The synagogue was situated at the exit to Synagogue Lane or Jockey Lane, but the exact location is not known.

Jockey Lane had horse dealers’ stables as well as the synagogue. This lane has had other names in the past, including Ten Faith Lane, which is believed to be linked to the mediaeval synagogue.

It is thought the Jewish community in Knaresborough was dissolved in 1275, 15 years before Jewish people were expelled from England in 1290 on the orders of Edward I. The plaque reads:

‘Knaresborough Synagogue. In the 13th century a Jewish community lived and worshipped in Knaresborough. The synagogue was situated at the exit to Synagogue Lane, at the rear of these buildings, the exact location is unknown. It is believed the Knaresborough Jewish community was dissolved in 1275, before all of the Jewish faith were expelled from England in 1290.’

A phylactery in Hebrew was found in Knaresborough Castle in 1738 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The fact that there was a Jewish community in Knaresborough is not in doubt since a phylactery in Hebrew was found in Knaresborough Castle in 1738. However, archaeological opinion is divided on the excavations on the site.

Christopher Walton, who uncovered 4 ft-thick stone walls in 1768, attributed those walls to the synagogue. However when the library was built an excavation revealed no mediaeval foundations.

The late Dr Murray Freedman (1928-2011) , a Leeds dentist and author of Leeds Jewry: The First Hundred Years (1992) and Leeds Jewry, A history of its Synagogues (1995), also published extensive research on the Jewish community in Knaresborough in 2002.

At Knaresborough Library on Market Place, the librarians confirmed they had been told that the alleyway beside the library was known locally as Synagogue Lane.

An 18th-19th century local historian, Ely Hargrove (1741-1818), claimed in 1768 that he had discovered the site of the synagogue, consisting of some stone foundations. However, Freedman says archaeological advice suggests that these foundations could not have been built before the 16th century, and so that could not have been the synagogue site.

Hargrove also reported a phylactery or tefillin had been found in Knaresborough Castle in 1738, although it is not known where that artefact is today. Freedman points out that only one scroll was found, and so suggests it must have been the contents of the Tefillin Shel Yad, the phylactery worn on the left arm. As this was only one scroll it is possible that it was the contents of a mezuzah from a doorpost rather than tefillin.

The earliest plan of the town, a hand-painted map dating from 1629 in the library of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, does not show street names other than those of the main streets.

In the 1841 census returns, the yard was called ‘Synagogues’ and included about half a dozen dwellings. A map in 1890 names the alleyway as Synagogue Yard.

However, the main accounts of Jewish history in England do not include Knaresborough among over 120 Jewish communities in mediaeval England, and suggest that at the time of the massacre in York in 1190, there were no other Jewish communities in the north of England other than those in York and Newcastle.

But Dr Freedman has come across two documentary references to Jews in Knaresborough at that time, offering evidence of Jews living in the town in the mid-13th century. Manser and Brunne fil Manaser, who may have been father and son, were living in Knaresborough in 1262. Manser and Manaser were the English mediaeval forms of the Hebrew name Menashe.

Dr Freedman suggests this is conclusive evidence that there were Jews living in Knaresborough in the 13th century, probably with their own synagogue.

The documents in the Public Record Office concern debts. But, while money lending was one Jewish occupation in mediaeval England, others were physicians, goldsmiths and artisans. Among themselves, they spoke Norman French, but all had knowledge of Hebrew and some also of Latin. They were literate and maintained close connections with the Jewish communities in northern France. All Jews were expelled from England in 1290.

Dr Freedman points out there are many remaining questions about the mediaeval Jewish community in Knaresborough. When was the community founded? How long did it survive? Because building new synagogues was prohibited after 1222, was the community (kehillai) in Knaresborough established before then? Was it an offshoot of the larger, more important community in York, perhaps even made up of survivors of the massacre in 1190.

Dr Freedman concedes the synagogue in Knaresborough may have been nothing more than a modified dwelling large enough to accommodate a minyan or quorum of 10 men, perhaps even a room in one of the houses and not affected by the ban in 1222.

The ‘Jewish Statute’ issued by Edward I in 1275 required all Jews in England to live only in towns that had archae or official chests with three locks and seals, in which all records, deeds and contracts involving Jews were deposited and preserved. This makes 1275 the likely date for the disbandment of any Jewish community in Knaresborough, when the Jewish residents probably moved to York, the nearest town where archae were kept.

Dr Freedman wonders what brought Jews to Knaresborough in the first place, and how big the community was. A synagogue with a regular minyan suggests the presence of at least 40-50 people, yet it is doubtful that the total population of Knaresborough at the time was more than a few hundred. And, he asks, where exactly on Synagogue Yard did the synagogue stand.

But he concludes that that over 700 years ago – and more than 500 years before the presence of any Jews in Leeds – there was a Jewish community and synagogue in Knaresborough.

Shabbat Shalom

Synagogue Lane, beside the plaque in Market Place commemorating the 13th century synagogue in Knaresborough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)