St Thomas a Becket's Church, Hampsthwaite

St Thomas a Becket's Church is the parish church of Hampsthwaite, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. Numerous Saxon and Norman graveslabs have been found in the vicinity of the church, suggesting there was an early church building here. The first recorded church was built around 1180, probably on behalf of Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland, one of the knights responsible for the murder of Thomas Becket. The church is believed to have been damaged during the First War of Scottish Independence and rebuilt later in the 14th century, with a new tower constructed in the 15th century. In 1820 the whole church other than the tower was demolished and rebuilt. It was again rebuilt in 1902, in the Perpendicular Gothic style, by C. Hodgson Fowler. The building was grade II listed in 1966. The church is built of gritstone with a grey slate roof and consists of a nave, a south aisle, a south porch, a chancel with a south vestry and a west tower. The 15th-century tower has three stages, stepped diagonal buttresses and a west doorway in Gothic style with a moulded surround, above which is a three-light Perpendicular window, and on the south face is a three-light window; all the openings have hood moulds. The bell openings have three lights and above is an eaves string course, an embattled parapet with central triangular pilasters and a weathervane. The porch entrance has a cha

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).