National Lottery Funded
Worship > The Dedication of St. Mary’s - Part 2

The dedication and orientation of Tickhill St Mary’s

Part 2

Church Alignment

Attempted Explanations

The fact that not all churches are aligned directly eastwards has led to a search for explanations.

For example, when a church’s chancel is on a slightly different alignment from its nave, the idea of weeping chancels has been suggested. This associates such a plan with the angle at which Christ’s head is commonly depicted on the cross. (Usually it is because the two parts of the building were built at different times and were laid out along slightly different axes.) A survey of over 1000 medieval rural churches published in 2004 concluded that, “the further the alignment of the nave is away from east, the more likely it is that the misaligned chancel will be closer to east than the nave. Similarly, the more modern the chancel, the greater the likelihood that it will be correcting the earlier ‘error’ in alignment. Even where naves and chancels appear to have been built at the same time, some chancels show alignment ‘improvement’, where the chancel is closer to east than the nave”.[6 2004, p. 1] So the symbolic explanation for this phenomenon seems unlikely.

The ridge of St. Mary's ChurchThe rebuilt nave ridge at St. Mary's ChurchThe ridge of St Mary’s fourteenth century nave appears slightly off-centre when compared with that of the original roof-line where the two meet the tower. However, at its east end, the ridge of the rebuilt nave lines up perfectly with that of the thirteenth century chancel, suggesting that the nave’s builders followed the alignment of the later chancel rather than that of the original nave. [1(1987), pp. 9, 12-13; illus. 1 & 2]

One explanation often offered for differences in alignment between churches is that medieval church buildings were laid out in the direction of sunrise on the feast day of the saint to which they were dedicated.

The origin of this idea seems to come from a seventeenth century writer, Silas Domville. He “was a captain in the Parliamentary army, who later devoted himself to antiquarian pursuits. He died in 1678. One of his manuscripts contains this passage: ‘In the days of yore, when a church was to be built, they watched and prayed on the vigil of the dedication, and took that point of the horizon where the sun rose from the East, which makes that variation, so that few stand true, except those built between [= at] the equinoxes. I have experimented some churches and have found the line to point to that part of the horizon where the sun arises on the day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated.’ During the Commonwealth Domville ransacked the cathedral libraries of Hereford and Worcester with great zeal. Hence he may have got his information from early sources... On the other hand, at his date, Domville might have had contact with the living tradition as a Masonic secret”. [2, p. 205 n. 1 1]. Others also suggest that “the concept that churches were aligned with sunrise on the feast-day of the churches’ patronal saint is often thought to have originated as a Masonic tradition”. [6 2006, p. 206 2].

Several writers have supported this theory about orientation with evidence from individual buildings. For example, the Anglo-Norman cathedral whose foundations are visible below York Minster, is “found to be aligned upon the approximate bearing of the sunrise on 14 September (Holy Cross Day) as it would have appeared c. 1080”, [7, pp. 49, 59-60] and again in John Phillips’ recent book on Beverley Minster - although he does add that the alignment to the sunrise on the feast of St Martin is “perhaps by coincidence” [8, p. 78]. Another ‘directed’ church even closer to home is mentioned in the 2017 report on the orientation of Edwinstowe church towards the sunrise on St Edwin’s day (12th October) and its consequent connection with the possible site of the battle of Hatfield in 633 AD. [5, p. 9]

The theory that a patron saint’s feast day determined a church’s original alignment was examined by very thorough sampling during the 1940s and 50s by Charles Cave and Hugh Benson, who “between them measured nearly 1000 churches” [10]. Cave alone measured the orientation of 642. Subsequently Ian Hinton similarly surveyed almost 1500 rural churches. This later survey raises other issues about alignment, suggesting that, from Cornwall to Denmark, “the further west a church is located, the more likely it is to be aligned to the north of east” [6, 2006, p. 215]. But, although G. H. Cook had suggested “very few mediaeval churches face the true equinoctial east” [4, p. 77], none of these large scale surveys supported the theory of alignment on patronal festival days. In fact, according to Hinton, “every dedication analysed has a greater proportion of its churches facing east than facing its sunrise and churches of all dedications face generally eastwards rather than generally towards their patronal saint’s sunrise point” [6 (2006), pp. 210-11].

The Alignment of St Mary’s Tickhill

To establish the alignment of the thirteenth century parish church in Tickhill (when the first major extensions in the form of the tower and chancel are likely to have been built, two compass readings were taken on each of the north and south walls of the chancel near the altar rails. From these (all four were identical) the alignment of the chancel appears to be 3° south ofpresent-day magnetic east. [1, 1987, pp. 12-13]

Adjusting for the difference between magnetic north and true north would make the true bearing of St Mary’s chancel only c.1.5° south of true east. 3

A clear line due east on the Ordnance Survey map from St Mary’s church aligns with the spur of sandstone that juts out by the crossroads where the A631 curves round at the foot of Spital Hill. Such a line on a map is obviously pointing to ‘map’ or grid east. Adjusting for the difference between this eastward line on the map and true east suggests that the sandstone spur’s position is less than 1° south of true east (0.8°), so it is roughly half way between that and the bearing of St Mary’s chancel.

The hill itself eventually rises to over 30m. and St Mary’s lies within the 15m. (or old 50ft.) contour. Observing sunrise from the church’s site near the bottom of the valley means that, for example 2° of horizon elevation would make the sunrise appear later and therefore further south than it really is by 3°-4°. It is no longer possible to judge the extent of this difference in the case of St Mary’s because the view at ground level is obscured by buildings. [6 (2006), p. 207]

However, if a difference does apply, it could explain the church’s apparent orientation of c.1.5° south of true east and 0.8° south of the spur, because the 15m or 50ft difference in height above the valley bottom over that distance could be enough to make the sunrise appear, from the site of the church, to be over or beside that hill, while the actual sunrise on that date was further north and closer to true east. It suggests therefore that the chancel’s orientation was fixed on a date when the actual sunrise was in a position very close indeed to true east.4 So, if G. H. Cook’s statement quoted earlier about the “small number” of churches facing true east were correct, the reason for Tickhill St Mary’s narrowly failing his test would at least be explained.

The disappearance of St Mary’s first nave makes it very difficult to calculate its original alignment, although the roof-line difference suggests that its eastward bearing might have been very slightly more northerly than the chancel’s. [illus. 1]

Writing in 1700 Chauncy believed that the orientation of a church “doth point to such a Place, where the Sun did rise at the time the Foundation thereof was laid, which is the reason why all Churches do not directly point to the East;... if it was laid in the Spring, or Autumn, it was directed full East; if in Winter, South-east; and by the standing of these Churches, it is known at what time of the Year the Foundations of them were laid”. [3, p 88]

Could this mean that St Mary’s thirteenth century chancel was aligned with the sunrise on one of the six feast days associated with the the Virgin Mary? Some fragments of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century glass in the middle window of the north aisle have been identified as probably coming from a representation of the Assumption, and another piece (currently in Retford but said to come from Tickhill) as being from an Annunciation scene. [1 1987, pp. 16-17; 9, p. 2003;  illus. 3,  4 & 5]

by Michael Goddard

Bibliography & References

  1. T. W. Beastall, Portrait of an English Parish Church: the Blessed Virgin Mary Tickhill, Yorkshire, 1987; and Tickhill, Portrait of an English Country Town, Waterdale Press, 1995
  2. Hugh Benson, “Church Orientations and Patronal festivals”, in The Antiquaries Journal, 36, 1956, pp 205–13
  3. H. Chauncy, The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, London, 1700 (available at https://ia800205.us.archive.org/8/items/historicalantiq03chaugoog/historicalantiq03chaugoog.pdf (accessed 09/08/18)
  4. G.H. Cook, The English Medieval Parish Church, Dent, 1954
  5. Andy Gaunt, Archaeoastronomical and Topographic Survey at St Mary’s Church, Edwinstowe in Sherwood Forest Nottinghamshire,  Mercian Archaeological Services CIC, MAS030, 2017 (available at http://www.mercian-as.co.uk/reports/edwinstowe_church_survey_report_2017.pdf (accessed 15/01/19)
  6. Ian Hinton, “Do Chancels Weep?”, Church Archaeology, Volume 5-6, 2004, pp. 42-54; and “Church Alignment and Patronal Saint’s Days”, in The Antiquaries Journal, 86, 2006, pp 206–26
  7. Derek Phillips, The Cathedral of Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux: Excavations at York Minster, vol. 2, HMSO, 1985
  8. JohnPhillips, Of A Fair Uniforme Making, the Building History of Beverley Minster, Blackthorn Press, 2016
  9. Brian Sprakes, The Medieval Stained Glass of South Yorkshire (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Great Britain), OUP, 2003
  10. Bob Trubshaw, “Church Orientation”, in Mercian Mysteries No. 5 December 1990” (available at http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/chorien.htm , accessed 18-07-18)

1Quoting Walter Johnson, in Byways in British Archaeology, 1912, p. 225.

2Quoting W. A. Laurie, History of Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge in Scotland, 1859, p. 414

3British Geological Survey at: http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gma_calc (accessed 04/08/18)

4Ordnance Survey Ltd. GB at: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/resources/maps-and-geographic-resources/finding-north.html (accessed 04/08/18)