Gautby

Location

Gautby church doesn't appear to be that promising from the outside.  It is a simple brick box, constructed in 1754-6 on the site of a medieval church. The chancel is built over a burial vault of the Vyner family of Gautby Great Park and it was they who paid for the building.  Gautby Great Park has long gone, as are the Vyners, who left the village in the nineteenth century for Newby in Yorkshire, leaving the church as the only reminder of their long residence here.  The interior of the church is quite surprising after the exterior impression, it is a light, elegant and quite sophisticated space.  The chancel arch is an impressive classical piece, flanked by two flat ionic pilasters.  The chancel floor is made up of Vyner ledger slabs and on either side of the altar are two purpose-made niches that ontain striking monuments to the founders of the Vyner family fortunes. One monument is that of Sir Thomas Vyner, 1st Baronet (1588-1665), a goldsmith of London and Comptroller of the royal mint who served as Lord Mayor of London.  The other is that of his son Thomas. Both were carved in 1673 by Jasper Latham and were removed to Gautby from St Mary's Woolnoth in London when that church was demolished in 1716.  For much of the twentieth century this little church was something of an Anglo-Catholic shrine and the Georgian features blend with some lovely devotional items to make an interior of great character.   Sadly that tradition has long gone and the church is now  little used. 







Access:  There is limited roadside parking to the east of the church, but please be careful as there isn't a lot of room.  The church is kept locked, but there is a keyholder notice in the porch.   

If you want to see some more photos of Gautby have a look at my Flickr folder