All Saints Church Hooton Pagnell

The village church is one of the most beautiful and interesting churches in Yorkshire and one of the three oldest churches in the diocese. The church is almost certainly pre-Norman. In the foundations is some curious Saxon herring-boxing and the walls of the porch are built of old stone sarcophagus and the seats in the porch are sarcophagus lids. The south doorway is Norman, as are the tower arch and the chancel arch. When the east end of the church was rebuilt in 1885 an old abbot's coffin was found, which is probably 1000 years old. This is now in the belfry which itself probably dates from the latter half of the thirteenth century.

A great deal of damage must have been done to the church during the Reformation and perhaps, too, during the Civil Wars. In 1799 the church and tower were pointed and the inside whitewashed. 100 years ago there were galleries and the pews were so high that a person of average height would have had difficulty in seeing over them. Possibly for children this would have been an advantage!

Restoration work at this time attracted wide interest from local archaeologists. In their opinion the tomb in the choir vestry dating back to 1310, was the oldest in the former West Riding. The church was warmed by a stove at this time.