St. Wilfrid (York Oratory)

Introduction

Saint Wilfrid (York Oratory) in York was built in 1862-64 by George Goldie. The church served as the Pro-Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Beverley until 1879.

A small chapel opened on the present site in 1802. The new St Wilfrid's Church opened in 1864.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a 5-bay aisled nave and clerestory with polygonal apse, west gallery and narthex, south-east vestry, south-west tower, and north-west Lady Chapel. The church is built of coursed squared yellow stone with grey ashlar bands and dressings, and slate roofs with wrought-iron finials. The church contains an opulent altar and baldacchino. The apse is lined with a reredos featuring an arcaded tier of biblical busts carved in high relief above a tier of carved panels, incorporating four sculpted figures seated at lecterns beneath canopies.

The Lady Chapel is entered through a screen of trefoiled arches beneath a tracery quatrefoil in a two-centred arch on columns with waterleaf capitals and a hoodmould on leaf stops. The west door has paired part-glazed twentieth-century doors set in a two-centred arch of four orders with stiff-leaf capitals and richly carved soffits. The tympanum above the west door is filled with high-relief carvings of four scriptural and allegorical scenes. Inside, the north and south arcades have two-centred arches on high round columns with moulded shaft rings and waterleaf capitals carved with angels.

The narthex is vaulted, with the vault springing from squat columns with stylised waterleaf capitals. The organ gallery above the narthex has a plain parapet. The church retains its original chairs, which have pierced traceried backs. The west end is gabled and flanked by setback gabled buttresses, from which pyramidal pinnacles with oversized crocket finials rise on the north and south sides.

On the south side, a one-storey pent-roofed aisle stands in front of the aisle clerestory, with a pent-roofed porch projecting at the western end. The porch has an arched opening and a diagonally boarded door on fine wrought-iron hinges, set in a moulded two-centred arch on squat columns with foliate capitals. The clerestory windows have paired trefoil-headed lights with cinquefoil tracery in two-centred heads. The chancel windows are cusped lancets, paired and tripled, and are tied by an impost string.

The vestry is two gabled storeys with four-pane sash windows and a gable with a circular window with a cinquefoil light in the centre. The Lady Chapel is one storey with a polygonal end and high windows with two-centred arches on colonnettes with waterleaf capitals. The north wall is a blind arcade on square piers with stylised foliate capitals. The clerestory windows are set in two-centred arches on shafts with foliate capitals, paired above the nave and tripled in the chancel.

The outer arches to the chancel are open and filled with sculpted standing figures. The chapel at the east end of the north aisle has a carved stone altar in a semicircular apse beneath a two-centred arch. Above the west windows is a circular window of four foiled lights in a carved surround and a crocketed gable cross. Between the doors of the west door is a sculpted seated figure beneath a canopy rising on a column pedestal.

The tower has a ballflower frieze, a cornice with gargoyles, and a pierced parapet with an oversized crocket finial at each corner. The tower's belfry openings are paired lancets with scalloped louvres in two-centred arches of two orders, with columns having foliate capitals. The tower's second stage has a single slit light beneath a relieving arch on the south and west faces, above which is a blind arcade of four two-centred arches on slender colonnettes with foliate capitals. The lowest stage of the tower's south face has a window of two cusped lights in a two-centred arch with squat jamb shafts and plate tracery in the head, with a hoodmould on head stops.

The church has a peal of ten bells in the Oratory Tower. The church has choirs as part of its parish activities.

Parish life

The Catholic Chaplain to the University of York is appointed by the Bishop of Middlesbrough. The Catholic Chaplain is part of the Ecumenical Chaplaincy to the University, organising weekly prayer times, talks, discussions and meals. The Newman Group is for young adults aged 18-35 and meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month at the Oratory Church.

The Anglican, Methodist, and Catholic Chaplains pray together three times each week at More House. The Chaplain hosts a meal for CaSSoc (The Catholic Society) after Mass on Thursdays.

The parishes of St Joseph's and St Wilfrid's are served in collaboration from The Oratory at Petergate House. The church has an Upper Room for meetings and small gatherings.

The Women's Oratory had a day out to the Coptic monastery of St Athanasius and Madonna House, Robin Hood's Bay. The parish has a Bible study group.

Visiting

The church has full wheelchair access facilities including a disabled toilet. The church has a Cælestis and Oratory Chant Group that sing a Tenebræ service.