and very much damaged and the Clerk’s prayer book also in bad condition. He hoped the Reverend Worsley would supply new ones as the parish needed all the help that could be provided as the parishioners complained of bad times.
The picture shows that the bell tower had collapsed, the main roof and that of the porch were in dreadful condition and an accumulation of soil appeared to be piled at the foot of the walls. After the new Rector, Norman Augustus Holltun was appointed in 1882 the Archbishop of York ordered Thomas Worsley to pay £165 for dilapidations but this was only enough to pay for basic repairs and in 1892 the Rector and Churchwardens appealed for subscriptions to bring about a speedy restoration of the church which in their words ‘was in a shameful state of dilapidation’ and the Archbishop of York visited Scawton and ‘heartily commended the very interesting and urgent work to the Churchmen of Yorkshire’. Mr Hodgson Fowler prepared the plans and estimated that the work could be accomplished for the sum of £600 and when the work was finally completed in December 1897 the final figure was £660 9s 0d, some of which was provided by the new Lord of the Manor, Carl Henry Ferdinand Bolckow.
Hodgson Fowler was a pupil of Sir Gilbert Scott and later became architect to Rochester, Lincoln and Durham cathedrals and in his book Yorkshire the North Riding Nicholas Pevsner wrote of Scawton church ‘a bouquet is due to Hodgson Fowler who in 1896 restored the church so tactfully that it now appears as genuine as one can find medieval village churches’.
In the mid 1960s contributions from local residents made possible such improvements as a new altar frontal and super frontal, new full length sanctuary kneeler, new carpet down the aisle, new vestments, new pulpit crucifix, the cleaning of the royal coat of arms and some outside repairs and painting.
Thirty years on the church architect reported that many repairs were needed and as initial estimates were in excess of £30,000 it was decided to have a millennium appeal and donations and fund raising efforts raised more than £15,000 which was matched by a grant from English Heritage and smaller grants from North York Moors National Park Authority and the Yorkshire Historical Churches Trust. Work commenced in October 2000, was completed in March 2001 and the results can be seen from the photograph on the next page.
