Ss Mary & Everilda, Everingham

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Ss Mary & Everilda Roman Catholic Church, Everingham is a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough in the village of Everingham close to the city of York. The church, a Grade I listed building, is owned by the Guest family but permanently leased back to the diocese on a 999 year lease.

History

The Roman Catholic Chapel of St Mary the Virgin and St Everilda is an impressive Italianate style church located in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The impressive stuccoed classical exterior almost dwarfs the adjacent red-brick Everingham Hall. Everingham hall was designed by John Carr and built between 1757 and 1764 for William Haggerston Constable.[link] His descendant William Constable-Maxwell, 10th Lord Herries, built the chapel between 1836 and 1839 after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829, when it became legal for Roman Catholic churches to be built Until the Catholic Emancipation Act it was illegal to build a Roman Catholic church in England. Once the act was passed, a number of catholic benefactors offered their assistance, and a large number of churches and chapels were built in the ensuing years. Yorkshire had a long history of recusancy and a large number of families had remained Catholic long after the reformation, indeed there were entire recusant villages. Everingham was one of these, and the Catholic Church of St. Everilda was built in the grounds of The Big House in the 1830s. Designed in Italy by a young Roman architect, Agostino Giorgioli, its building was supervised by John Harper of York and was modelled on the Maison Dieu at Nîmes. [link] The exterior is fairly unexceptional, but the interior is a long hall flanked with Corinthian columns, barrel-vaulted, and ending in an apse behind the altar. Plenty of 'faux' marbling and real gold leaf adds to the effect, and the acoustics are terrific." [link]The interior is magnificent, with giant Corinthian scagliola columns, niches with lifesize plaster statues of the Apostles and bas-reliefs of episodes in the life of Christ by Luigi Bozzoni of Carrara. The altar is of marble inset with panels of polished granite and porphyry.

The church was consecrated on 9 July 1839 by Bishop John Briggs,the vicar apostolic of the Northern District, assisted by Andrew Carruthers titular bishop of Ceramus, John Murdoch titular bishop of Castabala, James Gillis titular bishop of Limyra and, thirty-six other clergy. The ceremony lasted nearly seven hours.[link] A pontifical mass was celebrated the following day.

The parish of Everingham was closed in 2004 but the church is still used by the diocese and masses are regularly celebrated in the church. The Institute of Christ the King offered to take over the Church and supply a priest to serve it but this offer was controversially refused by the Bishop of Middlesbrough, John Patrick Crowley, at a time when the diocese was complaining of a shortage of clergy.

Interior Decoration

High Altar
Statues of the Twelve Apostles
Organ The organ is on a high west gallery, under the barrel vault. Despite the small specification, the organ is laid out grandly and occupies a big mahogany case with a gilded front (the facade starts at 8' C - the four lowest Open Diapason pipes are inside). The Great Organ is in the obvious place at impost level, and the tiny swell-box is above and behind, with the Pedal Pipes on either side below it. The entire base of the organ is occupied by an enormous double-rise reservoir, about twelve feet by six.[link]
Lady Chapel

External Links

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