The Church
The church of ST. MARY MAGDALENE at Faceby stands on the hillside to the west of the village and consists of chancel 27 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. with organ chamber on the north side, nave 28 ft. by 18 ft., and south porch. The structure was entirely rebuilt in 1875, but incorporates some fragments of an older church, the 12th-century west doorway having been re-erected on the south side and portions of 12th-century stonework built into the chancel arch. Before 1875 the plan of the building was a plain rectangle with bellcote over the west gable, but, although probably preserving a good deal of its 12th-century walling, it had apparently undergone many changes from time to time, three pointed windows on the south side and one at the east end having been fitted with barred sashes. There was a single similar window near the west end of the north wall and a square-headed opening of two trefoiled lights near the east end of the south wall. Canon Atkinson relates that during the demolition of the old building he saw 'a large number of voussoirs and other stones connected with two Norman arches of exceeding beauty, and one of them an elaborate arch of three members dug out of the foundations of the church which were being removed.' From this statement it is not quite clear whether these fragments were in addition to the stones of the Norman doorway which is shown in old views standing at the west end of the building, but only eight voussoirs, each carved with the cheveron moulding, are built into the modern pointed chancel arch. The semicircular arch of the old west doorway which was rebuilt on the inside of the south doorway facing the nave consists of two orders, the outer with a continuous moulding and the inner with the cheveron ornament, both springing from plain imposts. The hood mould has a plain star pattern, three stars to each stone. The jambs and imposts are new. The opening is 4 ft. wide.
As built in 1876 the chancel was 16 ft. in length, but it was enlarged to its present dimensions in 1911, when the church was repaired.
The font is apparently made from the base of an octagonal pier, and has a roughly hollowed bowl. All the fittings are modern.
Graves states that there was formerly a brass to Sir Lewis Goulton.
The plate consists of a silver paten of 1879, a modern plated cup, and a pewter plate.
The registers begin in 1707
[From: British History Online]
'Parishes: Whorlton', in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1923), pp. 309-319.
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