Church of St Colmuba Topcliffe
Medieval church largely rebuilt by railway architect GT Andrews in 1885. The 1360 sedilia, piscina and aumbry survive in the medieval chancel walls. Notable Flemish palimpsest brass 1391 to Thomas de Topcliffe and his wife. Stained glass windows by Burne-Jones 1857 and Kempe 1893
"TOPCLIFFE, a parish in the wapentake of Birdforth, a part in the liberty of St. Peter's; 4 miles SSW. of Thirsk. In the time of Leland, this was " a pretty uplandish town," and here stood one of the seats of the Percy family. It is now only a village, and the few vestiges of the baronial mansion that remain are called the " Maiden Bower." Here Henry, the fourth Earl of Northumberland, then lord lieutenant of the county. was, on St. Vitalis's day, in 1489, seized by the populace, and murdered, for enforcing a ten per cent tax, imposed in the time of Henry VII. by the advice of Empson and Dudley. Here Thomas Percy, the succeeding Earl, conspired against Queen Elizabeth, and was beheaded at York, on the 22d of August, 1572. In this house Charles I. was a prisoner; and here the £200,000. was paid by the Parliament to the Scotch, for quitting the country, and delivering up the King. The church, which bears evident marks of antiquity
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