The Church
The church of ST. PETER stands at the east end of the town, and consists of chancel 22 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. with south vestry, aisleless nave 62 ft. by 45 ft. and west tower 11 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. There is also a porch on the north side of the tower in the angle formed by the nave.
The only ancient work remaining is in the chancel and tower, which are apparently of 15th-century date, the nave having been rebuilt in 1771 in the plain classic style of the time with tall round headed windows on each side and walls of ashlar, with quoins at the angles, terminating in a cornice and straight parapet. The building was restored in 1875.
The chancel is very low and altogether overshadowed by the wide and lofty nave, and has diagonal buttresses of two stages at the east end with straight parapets to the walls and a two-light pointed east window of poor design. There is a similar window and a doorway on the north side together with a buttress, but the windows are apparently not original, the only ancient detail remaining being a piscina with broken bowl in the usual position in the south wall and the eastern half of the sedilia, the remainder having been cut away for a doorway to the vestry. The piscina recess has a plain pointed chamfered head and the sedilia have trefoil-headed openings. The chancel was apparently reduced in length at the west end when the nave was rebuilt, and has been almost entirely modernized internally. The floor is level with that of the nave, the walls are plastered and there is a modern curved boarded roof. The semi-circular chancel arch is of plaster and of the same date as the nave.
The tower is of three stages with an embattled parapet and angle pinnacles and a vice in the southeast corner. It has diagonal buttresses of four stages on the west side and the belfry windows are pointed, but are now filled in with wooden frames, and have a clock dial in the upper part of the opening. The upper part of the tower appears to have been rebuilt. The west doorway is an 18th-century insertion, and the porch on the north side is an addition of the same period. It formerly contained the staircase to a west gallery, now removed. On the south side the tower is engaged for about 5 ft. by the nave, from which the vice is entered, and the tower arch consists of two chamfered orders dying into the wall at the springing.
The old seating of the nave was replaced in 1875 by modern benches, and the ceiling is a flat boarded one coved along the sides. The organ is in the south-east corner. The font dates from 1875, and all the other fittings are modern. At the south-west corner of the nave facing west is a mural sundial dated 1822, with the motto 'Hora pars vitae.'
A new clock was presented in 1887 in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
There is a ring of six bells.
The plate consists of two covered cups and a paten, all made in 1678, and bearing the maker's mark, F.G., probably for Francis Garthorne (London). The cups are alike in design, though they slightly differ in size. One is inscribed 'Ex dono Jacobi Pennyman Militis & Baronetti 1678' and the other 'Ex dono Thomae Pennyman S.T.P Rectoris hujus Ecclesiae 1678.' The paten is inscribed 'William Potter & Thomas Hunt Church Wardens 1678.' In addition, each piece (including the two covers) bears the words 'Deo & Ecclesiae de Stokesley.'
The registers begin in 1571. The first four and part of the fifth volume (1571 to 1750) have been printed.
[From Victoria County History - North Riding Volume 2]
'Parishes: Stokesley', A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2 (1923), pp. 301-308.
The Cache
The co-ordinates should take you to a memorial, which is unusual in that it was once painted, to Elizabeth and Ralph Benton.
Elizabeth departed this life A Feb BCDE, Aged FG years.
Ralph departed this life, HJ Feb BKLM, Aged NP years.
The cache can be found at:-
N 54 DC.BD(B+C), W 1 HH.L(L+G)K
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