Funding bid to save rare medieval wall paintings

The wall paintings at St Peter and St Paul's Church date back to around 1470

Archaeologists have put together a funding bid to restore rare medieval wall paintings in a church in a North Yorkshire town.

The designs at St Peter and St. Paul's in Pickering were originally painted around 1470 but many of them were destroyed, damaged or lost over hundreds of years.

Now the church plans to submit a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help protect the artwork for future generations.

Professor Kate Giles, from the University of York's archaeology department, said: "We are now looking at 50 years since somebody last did work to the paintings and it's time that they were conserved once again."

In 1852, some of the paintings were rediscovered during repair work but they have since been damaged by poor conservation work.

"Unfortunately the Victorians and 20th Century conservators coated them with a preservative medium, they thought they were protecting them from damp but it's actually been disastrous for the paintings, it's stopped them from breathing, it's attracted a lot of dirt and dust," Prof Giles added.

The paintings, which depict stories of the saints as well as the cycle of Christ's passion, are thought to be only one of five remaining sets of medieval church wall paintings in England.

The church's vicar, the Reverend Gareth Atha, said: "In North Yorkshire they won't see anything quite like it. I think that people will be surprised at the scale of them, some are very, very large indeed."

But he also admitted that they required careful treatment.

"As silly as it might sound, the main thing we do is that we are very careful not to disturb the paintings. Some of them are quite dusty and it is tempting to go up with the feather duster, but of course if we do that it would be disastrous."

Church leaders hope to get money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards the wall art's restoration

Prof Giles added: "The general relative humidity of churches can be a problem, but here the underfloor heating system is creating a really stable environment."

One Victorian vicar, the Reverend John Ponsonby, even considered the murals a "distraction" during his sermons.

"I can kind of understand where he is coming from, but they're a fantastic asset to the church and it's a real privilege to be the vicar here and lead worship among them,'' said Mr Atha.

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