Two Churches in Beverley, Beverley, England

Early in the 8th century the then bishop of York, John, founded a monastery. When he died in 721 his body was buried in a chapel of the monastery’s Saxon church. In 1037 he was canonised and his monastery, and the town that had grown up around it, became a place of pilgrimage.

Today Beverley is an attractive small market town dominated by a very large church, the Minster, which was built on the site of that earlier Saxon church.

Let’s take a Monday Walk to explore not only this but also another historically interesting, and beautiful, church.

The Minster in Beverley is not only one of the largest parish churches in the UK, it is actually larger than one-third of all English cathedrals! The present church was built largely between the late twelfth and early fifteenth centuries. There is an interesting history of the church on the Minster’s website so I won’t go into details here. The website also includes lots of information about the architectural style, which is mainly Gothic (a mix of Decorated and Perpendicular styles).

Highlights inside include the Medieval Minstrels. There are over 70 carvings, in wood and stone and dating from the medieval period, which depict about 20 different instruments as well as singers. This is believed to be the largest collection of such carvings in the world. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).