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The Church of St Michael in Coxwold, North Yorkshire, was built in the 1420s in the Perpendicular style, replacing an earlier Norman church which in turn replaced an even earlier Saxon one (there is a letter of AD 757 from Pope Paul I ordering King Eadbert of Northumbria to repair the minster church at Coxwold).
Inside, the pews and pulpit were originally installed in the 1760s by Laurence Sterne, the author who was also vicar of Coxwold and who lived in Shandy Hall nearby. On the chancel arch is the royal coat of arms of King George I, flanked by the memorial arms of the earls of Fauconberg, the local landower. Look carefully at the base of the wooden lectern stand for a carving of a mouse, the trade mark of renowned woodcarver Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson.
In the chancel is a collection of magnificent monuments to the Belasyse family (later viscounts Fauconberg, the local landowners).
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