When St Andrew’s nearly fell down 

Today, the great stone arcades of St Andrew’s appear solid and permanent. Yet at the end of the nineteenth century, parts of the church were in such a dangerous condition that urgent action was needed.

When restoration work began in 1901, the builders made an alarming discovery. Some of the pillars supporting the church had little or no proper foundations beneath them.

The Lang Kirk of Craven had survived for centuries, but parts of it were in danger of failing.

Warning signs

By 1897, serious concern was being expressed about the condition of St Andrew’s. Cracks and movement in the masonry suggested that parts of the building were becoming unstable.

The church had grown through repeated rebuilding and enlargement. Medieval builders had extended it eastwards, added aisles and arcades, and incorporated earlier fabric into the structure. Later repairs had not always addressed the underlying problems.

A major restoration was therefore planned under the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley. The work began in 1901 and continued until 1903.

It soon became clear that this would involve much more than ordinary repairs.

Pillars without proper foundations

The most disturbing discovery concerned several of the arcade pillars towards the eastern part of the church.

These pillars carried the arches separating the nave and chancel from the south aisle. They supported a considerable weight of stonework, yet the restoration account indicates that some had been built with little or no adequate foundation.

Instead, they stood over ground which had previously been used for burials.

As graves beneath the pillars settled or collapsed, the masonry above them had begun to move. This appears to have contributed to the dangerous condition of the arcade.

Four pillars and their arches had to be taken down. New foundations were excavated to a depth of about six feet before the stonework could be rebuilt.

It must have been a dramatic sight. For a time, a substantial part of the interior of St Andrew’s was effectively a building site, with medieval masonry dismantled and the ground beneath the church opened.

Graves beneath the church

The restoration account reports that two complete skeletons were uncovered while the new foundations were being dug.

Their discovery is not surprising in itself. Burial inside medieval churches was common, and St Andrew’s had already been in use for many centuries before the pillars were constructed.

What makes these burials particularly interesting is their relationship to the later building.

If the account is accurate, the graves were already present when parts of the arcade were built above them. This gives us a sequence of activity:

the burials came first, then the pillars and arches, and finally the rebuilding of 1901–03.

Unfortunately, the skeletons do not appear to have been scientifically examined or dated. We cannot assume that they were Anglo-Saxon or Norman. They may have belonged to any of several medieval phases in the history of the church.

Nevertheless, they show that the ground beneath the present building preserves evidence of earlier use.

Rebuilding the medieval church

Restoration work of this kind would be approached very differently today.

Modern archaeologists would carefully record the position and depth of burials, foundations and other features. Any disturbed human remains would be treated according to strict legal and professional procedures. The relationships between graves, walls and floors would be documented because they might reveal how the building developed.

In 1901, the priority was saving the church.

The unstable masonry was dismantled, secure foundations were constructed and the pillars and arches were rebuilt. Much of the medieval stone was reused, helping to preserve the appearance and character of the interior.

The work succeeded. More than a century later, the rebuilt arcade continues to stand.

What else was discovered?

The restoration is famous for another remarkable discovery.

Fragments of several pre-Conquest carved stone monuments were found built into the fabric of the church. Most are now dated to the tenth century and provide some of the earliest evidence for Christianity at Kildwick.

Exactly where every fragment was found is not always clear from the published accounts. Establishing their original locations, and whether any were discovered during the work on the pillars and foundations, is one of the questions behind our current research.

The restoration also exposed evidence which the Vicar, the Revd E. W. Brereton, believed marked the eastern end of a much smaller church. He associated this earlier building with the four westernmost bays of the present nave.

The work of 1901–03 therefore revealed evidence at both ends of St Andrew’s: possible remains of a shorter church in the west, and graves beneath later medieval construction further east.

Could modern archaeology tell us more?

Much of what the restorers saw was covered over again when the work was completed.

We are now examining surviving plans, photographs, correspondence and other records in the hope of discovering more precise information. We particularly want to establish which pillars were rebuilt, where the skeletons were found and whether the builders recorded any earlier walls or foundations.

There may also be an opportunity to investigate beneath the church without disturbing the floor.

We have begun discussing the possibility of a future ground-penetrating radar survey with archaeological prospection specialists at the University of Bradford. Such a survey might help identify former foundations, disturbed ground, burial features or other structures beneath parts of the present building.

A church which has been enlarged, rebuilt and used for burial over many centuries will produce complicated results. Ground-penetrating radar cannot, by itself, tell us the date of a grave or wall. But it may help us understand where earlier features survive and where future research should be concentrated.

A church rescued

The phrase “When St Andrew’s nearly fell down” sounds dramatic, but the danger was real.

Parts of the church were unstable. Several pillars and arches had to be dismantled, and proper foundations constructed beneath them. Without that intervention, the movement of the masonry would probably have continued.

The restoration of 1901–03 undoubtedly changed parts of the building, as major Victorian and Edwardian restorations often did. But it also saved St Andrew’s.

It revealed ancient carved stones, traces of earlier construction and graves beneath the medieval arcades. In solving an immediate structural crisis, the restorers also opened a brief window into the hidden archaeology of the church.

More than a century later, their discoveries are helping us ask new questions about how the Lang Kirk of Craven grew, and what may still survive beneath its floor.