The church is a simple oblong 31 feet 6 inches by 18 feet originally lighted by one narrow semi-circular window at the west end, two on the south side and one on the north. There is a small window in the north east wall through which it is possible that people suffering from diseases may have been able to obtain Absolution or the Sacrament. Other windows have been added through the years and there are the remains of an arch in the nave abutting the present-day window and it can be seen in the Sanctuary how the pointed sedilia arch was once broken down to provide space for a south side window which is of a later date.
The priests’ door on the south east side has been partly blocked up but the main doorway is a fine example of early Norman work and below the eastern of the north pair of windows is a recess in which there is a deep rectangular basin or sink and standing on the sill are two shafts of moulded bases and capitals with small volute carvings of the transitional 12th and 13th century period. The use of the basin, evidently a lavatorium is not apparent and it could have been brought from Byland or Rievaulx after the surrender of those monasteries. Under the first of the south windows is a plain pointed piscina for washing sacred vessels and west of it are two ‘sedilias’ [seats for visiting clergy] and it is here that the Abbots of Byland may have sat whilst at Scawton services.
A former altar stone inscribed with crosses is located behind the present-day altar and it may be the one that was originally brought from the mother church in Old Byland in 1146 together with the stone font and the smaller of the two bells in the tower which is inscribed with the arms of Roger the second abbot and the inscriptions Campana Beate Marie and ‘Johnes de Copgraf me fecit’ which presumably relates to John of Copgrove near Boroughbridge but no historical details about him have been found.
The Norman chancel arch has plain square jambs, the one on the north side being partly restored and on each side of the central archway there two arched recesses each about 4 feet wide and of the same date of the nave. They are rare for their date and appear to have originally been side altars in which clergy could take part in the services. Their backs were pierced at a later date to form squints that provide views into the Sanctuary.
The south doorway is of the 12th century and has two square orders in the jambs with late 19th century shafts in the angles. The capitals are scalloped in addition to having a kind of pellet and lozenge ornament. Both orders of the round arch are enriched by zig-zag ornament and the label is a double pellet mould. The porch is a 19th century addition with a pointed doorway and in its east wall is set a 13th century coffin slab on which is carved a foliated cross with a leaf ornament in one spandrel and what appears to be a pineapple in the other.
Little is known about restorations that took place before the end of the 19th century though the addition of a new bell in the mid 18th century suggests that it was being cared for during the Fairfax Lordship of the Manor. Sadly this does not appear to have been the case during the period of the Rectorship of Thomas Worsley between 1826 and 1882 when he was also Master of Downing College and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. The picture of the church on the next page taken at the end of his rectorship shows a building that would be taken to be an old barn rather than a church and a letter to Thomas Worsley from John Oxlee who was his predecessor acknowledges payment of £23 1s 7d for taking services from 1 December 1877 to 10 March 1878 and also mentions that the bible in the church was mouldy and dirty, the prayer books torn
