The Low Villages - St Nicholas, South Ferriby

St Nicholas' (Grade II*) is perched half-way up the western edge of the chalk of the Lincolnshire Wolds overlooking the vale of the river Ancholme. The Viking Way Long Distance Path runs along the top of the Churchyard. 

The twelfth century carving of St Nicholas above the porch door (opposite) tells us that there has been a church on this site for 900 years; however, in that time there have been many additions and alterations.

The unstable nature of the slope has  resulted in various collapses over the centuries, so the building now runs North-South instead of the more common East-West. Inside the Church it's possible still to see where the original east-facing chancel was converted into a vestry. 

Services are held on the second Sunday of each month at 11.00.

St Maurice's is one of a handful of churches in Britain dedicated to this Egyptian soldier-saint, though he's very popular throughout Europe (St Moritz, for example, is named after him, along with 200+ places in France). 

Our Grade 1 Church is 12th Century and has a link with the Crusades, through either the Knights Hospitaller (who are on record as appointing the Vicar) or (traditionally, romantically, Da-Vinci-Code-pleasingly but, alas, improbably) the Knights Templar, who held some land locally. 

As a settlement, there was a Roman presence here, attested by the mosaic floor of a Roman villa now in the Hull and East Riding museum. The folk song 'Horkstow Grange' describes a fight between the farm's tyrannical foreman, John Bowling, and the waggoner, John 'Steeleye' Span (from whom, we presume, the folk group took its name).

Services are held on the third Sunday of the month at 11.00 (BCP)

All Saints' is a (II*) Victorian replacement of a ruinous mediæval building and  a rare example of a rural church designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott (The Albert Memorial, The Midland Hotel at St Pancras, Glasgow Cathedral)

It contains interesting glass, including a Burne-Jones window of the Virgin and Child, and is largely unaltered since the 1850's. One of the memorials displays the longest possible date in Roman numerals - MDCCCLXXXVIII.

The Churchyard contains the grave of the folk-musician Joseph Taylor, who was pivotal to the preservation of a number of Lincolnshire folk-songs, including 'Brigg Fair' and 'The  White Hare '. Three acres of land adjacent to the Churchyard were purchased by the Church and turned over to meadow paths, a play area and indigenous woodland planting. There is also a small amphitheatre, the only such in the North of England.

Services are held on the fifth Sunday of each month at 11.00 (BCP)

St Clement's (II*) was  re-built between 1873 and 1877, although the early Norman piers of the nave, windows and Late Saxon tower arch were re-used. The Church contains a number of historically interesting items, including mediæval glass, a Saxon font, and fragments of Roman statuary, demonstrating the length of time this site has been settled. 

Services are held on the second Sunday of the month at 9.30 (Morning Praise) and on the fourth Sunday of the month at 11.00 (Eucharist)