Holy Trinity Church Skipton: “Open door to past, present and potential of the future”

Standing at the top of the main street running through the “Gateway to the Dales”, Holy Trinity is one of the most visited parish churches in Yorkshire. Each year thousands of people from home and abroad pass through its door while attending Skipton’s famous open-air market.

The church website states that it offers “an open door to the past, the present, and the potential of the future”. The first building on the site was constructed with timber in the early 12th century, while today’s church dates from around 1300, with an eastern extension added in the late 1600s.

The Cliffords of Skipton Castle, which stands immediately behind the church, were its main benefactors. Besides being the family’s local place of worship, it also became the familial burial vault after the Dissolution of the Monasteries of 1539 closed their traditional site at Bolton Priory in Wharfedale. The church houses the dark marble tomb of Henry, 1st Earl of Cumberland, who was given the title by Henry VIII, and the magnificently carved tomb of the 3rd Earl, George Clifford, a courtier of Elizabeth I.

During the English Civil War the Cliffords sided with the king, and their castle became a Royalist stronghold, the last in the north to surrender. In the siege of the castle, the church was damaged, and the legendary Lady Anne Clifford paid for its restoration.

Modern changes came from a major renovation programme in 1909 when galleries were removed, a north transept and new vestries added.