Church of St Stephen Fylingdales, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

FYLINGDALES

1321/16/216 THORPE ROAD 06-OCT-69 ROBIN HOOD'S BAY (North side) Church of St Stephen (Formerly listed as: THORPE ROAD ROBIN HOOD'S BAY CHURCH OF ST STEPHEN)

II* Parish church. 1868-70 by G E Street with stained glass by Henry Holiday, built by Mr Langdale of Whitby. English Middle Pointed or early Decorated Period style with French Gothic influences.

PRINCIPAL MATERIALS Local sandstone with distinctive horizontal tooling, finely laid to courses, with quoins, copings and architectural mouldings of finely finished sandstone. Roofing of small, plain, red clay tiles with decorative ridges and stone cruciform finials except for the decorative iron cross on the chancel roof and the simpler cross on the tower roof. Iron rainwater goods including decorative covers to rainwater hoppers.

PLAN The church has a 4 bay nave with a south aisle. The single bay chancel is only slightly narrower than the nave and is flanked by an organ chamber to the north and a chapel to the south, the chapel forming the east end of the south aisle. The chancel extends beyond the east end of the side chapel as an apse that forms the sanctuary containing the high altar. To the south of the side chapel is the vestry. Immediately to the west of the vestry and south of the south aisle is the tower which has a south door at its foot. However the main entrance to the church is via the south porch at the western end of the south aisle.

EXTERIOR The CHANCEL apse has a high plinth and a string course at window sill level joining the five 2-light plate tracery windows that are separated by sloped gable buttresses. The organ chamber flanking the north side of the chancel has 3 lancet windows and a lean-to roof with stone coped gables. The chapel flanking the south side has a lean-to roof that is a continuation of the south aisle and a 3-light east window.

The NAVE has four 2-light plate tracery windows on the north wall linked by a string course at sill level and a continuous hoodmould. Each window is slightly different as, although the main lights are all trefoil lancets, the spandrel light above each pair is different. The western most bay of the north nave wall is windowless and has instead a sloped buttress. The west end is supported by two sloped buttresses and has a 4-light plate tracery window with a sexfoil over quatrefoils. The window has a roll moulded opening and a hoodmould with foliate stops. Above are three ventilation lancets. The south wall has a clerestory of 2-light trefoil headed windows alternated with quatrefoil roundels all under a continuous hoodmould. The nave's gables are stone coped with stone cruciform finials.

The SOUTH AISLE has a south porch with a cinqfoil moulded entrance with a hoodmould with foliate stops. To the east of the porch are 2 sloped buttresses and two 3-light trefoil windows. These windows are not aligned with the clerestory windows above. The aisle's west window is without a surround and is in the form of a pair of trefoil lancets with a trefoil roundel above.

The TOWER is attached to the easternmost bay of the south aisle. It is a very tall, 4 stage, saddleback tower. It has a plinth and a small south door with decorative strap hinges in a multi-moulded surround with a foliate stopped hoodmould. The tower has angled buttresses that nearly extend to the third stage. The second stage is marked by a string course and has tall lancets in the west and south walls with a deeply inset sexfoil roundel in the east wall, all beneath a continuous hoodmould. The third stage is shorter and again marked with string courses. This stage, forming the ringing chamber, is lit by a simple square headed lancet in each wall. The top stage, forming the bell chamber has 2-stage, 2-light plate tracery windows with internal louvers in the east and west gable walls and similar single stage windows in the north and south walls. Each is deeply set in