The Church of St Mary, Lastingham, is the Anglican parish church for the village of Lastingham in North Yorkshire.
The first church on the site was a Catholic monastery founded in 654, though the present church dates from the latter part of the 11th century and was converted to an Anglican church during the Reformation. Lastingham has been an important part of Christian heritage and culture in Northern England and as such, has been a place of pilgrimage, especially for its rare crypt, which is said to be unique architecturally for England, and possibly, the world.
The Venerable Bede described how in 654, monks established a wooden monastery at Lastingeau, which in Bede's time (730) meant the abode of Læ̃sta's people. The land for the monastery was procured from the King of Deira and the monks established their house in "a fold of the Yorkshire Moors". St Cedd was the first abbot and he died of the plague at Lastingham in 664. At first he was buried in the open air, but the monks eventually built a church around him. This church has no substantial structures left; it is thought that the church was destroyed during the various raids in the area over the next 400 years, particularly by Danish invaders.
When Cedd died, his brother St Chad, took over as abbot and running of the monastery, but not long afterwards, he moved to Lichfield. Eventually, the relics and remnants of St Cedd's presence at Lastingham were removed and kept with those of his brother in Lichfield. Some of their bones are now entombed in Birmingham Catholic Cathedral,. though St Cedd is believed to be mostly buried at Lastingham.
The monastery is believed to have been destroyed in 870, but William Conqueror gave permission for a new church to be built on the site in 1078, when a cohort of Benedictine monks from Whitby, set up the new church under Stephen. However, they only stayed for ten years before moving on to York; it was reasoned later that the remoteness of the abbey and the outlaw nature of the area forced them to relocate. The revival of the church has therefore been confined to a clear decade and the Romanesque architure is prominent in the reconstructed church. Some have pointed out the rarity in being able to see a start and end date in the building of the church.
During the 13th century, arcades, bays and aisle in the north and south parts of the church were added. In the following century, the tower was erected and it was left for five centuries with little further work until 1879, when it was renovated by John Loughborough Pearson with the porch being rebuilt and the whole church being re-roofed. This has led to a mix of architectural styles; the walls of the aisles are Perpendicular, but the nave (and indeed, most of the foundations and crypt) are Norman. Stone altars in the church have been dated back to Roman times with current thinking being that they were re-worked during the Anglo-Saxon period.
The crypt underneath St Mary's, has walls that are 3 feet (0.91 m) thick. It is reputed to be the only crypt in England that has a nave, apse and side aisles. The crypt also lays claim to be the oldest Norman crypt in the world and additionally the only one with a nave, aisles and an apsidal chancel. The crypt runs underneath the whole footprint of the church above and is furnished with one square shaft which is indented with a piscina. The crypt is supported by four pillars believed to be of pre-conquest in origin and historians estimate that the crypt has not been altered since the time of William the Conqueror. The crypt is accessed by a staircase descending from nave.
The cache
On the outside of the church, at the stated coordinates, you will find a memorial stone to Robert Shepherd and his family.
The cache can be found at N54 18.ABC W000 52.DEF
A = Robert died on 27th December 18A2
B = Robert died aged 6B
C, D and E = Richard John, Robert's only son, died on Cth September 1D31 aged E2 years
F = Mary, Robert's second daughter, died at the age of F8 years
The cache is a 10-15 minute uphill walk away from the church.
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