THE ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, not far from Masham in Wensleydale, must surely rank among the most atmospheric of our local collection of former Catholic churches and monasteries.

Ruined abbeys abound in this region, several being of international renown, such as Fountains, Rievaulx and Whitby, but few are as compelling or even as beautiful as Jervaulx.

Perhaps that is because, unlike many, it remains in private ownership – although it is open to the public all year round with honesty boxes to take fees for car parking, entry to the ruins and books or other items.

My purpose was to locate an altar stone with five small crosses cut into its surface.

One source of reference told me that the altar stone formed part of the high altar, but that is not true – the high altar is missing. However, it did not take long to find the object of my search because there are the remains of a stone altar in a former chapel adjoining the north transept of the abbey church.

Although I did not have a tape measure with me, I estimate the altar is approximately 5ft (1.6m) long by 3ft (1m) wide and 3ft high.

The entire surface of the altar consists of a single slab of stone, albeit damaged, and sure enough five small crosses are carved into its surface, one at each corner and one in the centre. If they were connected by lines, they would form a cross shaped like an X.

This is the symbolic image of the Five Wounds of Christ, which were the wounds he suffered during the crucifixion, and which became the symbol of English Catholics during the 200 years or so of their persecution.

The top two crosses depict the wounds of the nails in his hands, the bottom two the wounds in his feet, and the central one the wound in his side, where a Roman soldier pierced him with a spear to determine whether he was dead or alive.

Over time, the central wound has come to be represented by his heart instead of that spear wound, and from this there has developed a sepainherirate symbol known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In Catholic churches, the altars have always been made of stone. No other medium, such as wood, could be used and so, during the Penal Times and Reformation, when Catholic priests in this country travelled undercover upon their secret missions, saying mass and administering the sacraments in private houses, they carried small portable altar stones. These were about the size of a modern paperback book, say 8ins by 6ins (20x15cm), but were essentially made from stone with the Five Wounds of Christ endorsed in the form of those five crosses.

An essential part of an altar, however, and indeed an equally essential part of a portable altar stone, was that each must contain the relic of a saint. Contrary to what the Puritanical reformers believed, this was not necessarily a piece of human bone.

More than likely it would be a single strand of thread from a garment, a single hair or some other tiny item that could be accommodated. In the case of a portable altar stone, such a relic had to be very tiny indeed and there is little doubt that such stones contained, say, a single hair or thread of cotton from a saint’s clothing.

This surviving altar at Jervaulx would have contained a saint’s relic of some kind and it would be kept beneath the altar stone in a vessel known as a sepulchrum. When Henry VIII’s commissioners set about their destruction of Catholic abbeys and churches, one of their missions was to eradicate or remove objects they considered to be either superstitious or to be worshipped as idols, hence the wrecking of the altars.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the saint’s relics in the Jervaulx altar were removed and destroyed. A hole directly beneath the central front of the stone shows where the sepulchrum was lodged. Its protective stone was forced out and the fate of the relic and its container is unknown.

When the destruction of our abbeys and churches was at its most fierce, statues were smashed, paintings removed, bells stolen and all colourful adornments associated with Catholicism were obliterated.

Pickering church, for example, contained some splendid medieval paintings that were covered up because they were considered idolatrous. A decapitated statue of the Virgin Mary was found buried in the graveyard of Kirkdale Minster for the same reason and even rood screens were smashed or removed. The one from Jervaulx Abbey Church is now in the Anglican Aysgarth parish church, but Jervaulx suffered perhaps more than other abbeys.

This was due to the activities of its last abbot, whose name was Adam Sedbergh. He would not acknowledge Henry VIII as head of Christ’s church and so joined the illfated Pilgrimage of Grace in October 1536 as a protest against Henry’s destruction of the abbeys. The Pilgrimage of Grace was ruthlessly suppressed by Henry; Abbot Sedbergh was arrested and charged with treason. He was lodged in the Tower of London where his signature could be seen in its Beauchamp Tower – Adam Sedbar, Abbas Jorevall, 1537, and he was executed that year at Tyburn.

There followed the most savage destruction of any abbey, with looting of its valuables and the destruction of all things Catholic. The lead was stripped from the roofs by Richard Bellyseys in 1538, followed by the near total destruction of the abbey’s buildings.

Later, many of its stones were stolen for the construction of local buildings, but those five little crosses on the altar stone remain to serve as a reminder of those turbulent and unjust times.

Old and new

FOLLOWING my notes about Brignall Banks and Brignall’s two churches (D&S, Aug 13), I have received an interesting letter from an Ampleforth reader. In my notes, I referred to a pagan Roman altar that was supposed to be in St Mary’s Church, an unusual occurrence because it is rare that a pagan altar would be housed in a Christian church.

However, my correspondent, whose wife’s relations formerly lived at Brignall, could find no evidence of such an altar.

He tells me the present one is built of wood, but adds that near the river were used in the construction of the new one in 1833-4. The bell, font and some flooring were also used in the new church.

He adds that the list of vicars at Brignall dates back to 1200, which gives us some idea of the religious history of this fascinating area.

Quiet delight

AND finally, while exploring the area around Masham and Jervaulx during my research, my wife and I were delighted to discover Marfield Wetlands.

Surprisingly, I had never heard of this nature reserve between Masham and Jervaulx, but it comprises several acres of lakes and countryside in what were sand and gravel quarries.

The range of wildlife is quite staggering, comprising not only water birds such as breeds of geese and duck along with coot, moorhens and even swans, but also snipe, lapwings, redshanks and skylarks.

With two entrances, there are car parks, but no facilities for ice-cream or other refreshments, and no toilets. Nice place for a quiet picnic, though!