Thanks to Paul Shaw for providing the following information:
From Pevsner’s Buildings of England: York and the East Riding (1972) (a standard text) we are told that the Norman doorway of the old church (C13 and C15) includes on one capital (top of the column) is Sagittarius, on the others the Agnus Dei and a monster. Of the new church, that it was built 1883-1892 to the designs of J. G. Hall of Canterbury. It is described as ‘the most ambitious period church of Outer York and shows an extremely competent handling of the Early English style’ It is noted that the windows are all lancets and the capitals of columns ‘abundantly foliated - stiff leaf as well as waterleaf’. the font is described as ‘Small, Perpendicular, with friezes of tiny genre motifs’. Pevsner was a very distinguished architectural historian and not easily impressed so this is quite an accolade!
From Bartholomew City Guides-York by John Hutchinson and D M Palliser (1980) we are told that ‘St Laurence’s tower is the only relic of pre-siege [1644] Lawrence street’. It is noted that the tower has had its ‘pretty battlements restored away’ and certainly old pictures suggest a more florid and elaborate parapet once was there. Also mentioned in the graveyard is ‘The Rigg monument by Plows, marvellously ripe in a railed enclosure full of ivy, commemorates six children killed in a boating accident of 1830′. Of the Victorian church, it is stated that it was built in 1881 and the tower in 1893. They seem less impressed by the architecture, suggesting that it represents a throwback to the cheap ‘Commissioners’ churches’ of the 1830s. ‘It has lancets, Kentish rag, heavy French detailing of an unsettled style, and a towering, narrow interior. The 15th-cent font with 3 tiers of minute carvings repays the closest of inspections’.
From This is York by C B Knight (1951), a very erudite local historian, we are told that the historian of York Francis Drake (1736) believed the church to be ancient, but that his own researches have not confirmed the date of its foundation, though its catalogue of rectors goes back to 1316, and its annual value in 1428 was £9. It was nearly destroyed in the 1644 siege, but by Drake’s day was ‘in very good repair’. The dates he gives for the building of the new church are identical to those given in the Bartholomew guide. As a boy, he recalls the ancient stocks were still in the churchyard, though apparently a replica of them is in the church tower. The book includes a lovely illustration of the old church tower.
Further to this, I was interested to try to find something out about the architect of the Victorian church. His name does not appear amongst the most well-known of Victorian architects, but often much highly competent church work at this period was done by locally-based architects of whom little is known. I found reference on the web to 2 works by him in his home town:
Finally, regarding the lovely stained glass window showing the church choir, I strongly suspect that it is by a local artist, Harry Stammers, whose work is very distinctive and is represented in a number of churches in the locality e.g. a lovely Annunciation in St Olave’s near the museum gardens - though he did have a pupil who produced work in a similar style called Harvey, see:
