Church Recording: Invitation to participate

One of the more public activities of the Arts Society has always been Church Recording, that is the systematic and consistent recording of the structure and contents of hundreds of our wonderful church buildings. Together with Conservation it represents our most positive input into the wider community. The Wensleydale group had already recorded the magnificent churches at Wensley (in 2005), Bedale (2008) and Hornby (2012) but had for a while been taking a breather. However in January 2014 we decided to resume and several of us met at Masham Church to allocate areas of responsibility and embark on a new record. Some of us had done it before, others were total novices - willing but ignorant. There was a good deal to learn and some dropped by the wayside. Then for a while momentum was lost until it became clear that without some outside help we were never going to finish. So a small group from the southern end of the N Yorks/S Durham group joined us and we were able at last to complete the Masham record. The end product was handed over to the churchwardens at Masham in the morning service on Sunday November 17. 
We then turned our attentions to St Nicholas West Tanfield which proved no less interesting but easier to get on with. We handed over that record in October 2021.
Our next project is the mighty church at Kirklington, home of the Wandesford family since the early middle ages. That promises to be an interesting challenge and we welcome any member of TASW who feels that they have some time or expertise to lend to the recording project.
Anyone interested can contact Brian Kealy at cbkealy@gmail.com

Author: Brian Kealy

Gallery image: courtesy of David Hutton-Squire