The twelfth-century sculpture of the restored parish church at Bishop Wilton.

What is it about?

St Edith's was restored by the first Sir Tatton Sykes, initially using the architect J. L. Pearson who, unlike many Victorian architects, liked 'Norman' or Romanesque work. The stone used in the medieval building was liable to decay and flaking so the old doorway especially needed very careful treatment. In surviving old stones, surfaces are not decayed, but fractures along the bedding places (at right angles to the surface) have developed. Approximately half the arch stones were renewed in the restoration, but their imagery closely resembles genuine sculpture, and the nature of the fault in old stones probably meant that accurate copies could be made. The motifs can be grouped and make a symmetrical layout, comparable to that at Healaugh church. The two outer orders (or arches) illustrate texts in the New Testament, in the first epistle of Peter.

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Why is it important?

The bewildering variety of motifs on this doorway do not encourage the visitor to consider the doorway as a unity, but rather to consider each stone separately, and to invent or borrow a narrative for the carvings one by one. However, as analysed in the article, there is an overall plan and a unified intention in the carvings.

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