St Cuthbert’s Church, Sessay

Upcoming Services

Services are held on the second and fourth Sundays at St Cuthbert’s along with 5 local parishes. More information can be found on the Facebook page and in the monthly village hall Newsletters

St Cuthbert’s Church

There has been a church in Sessay since Anglo-Saxon times when it was granted to the Abbot of St Mary’s in  York.  The church was moved from its original site in the 16th century by Sir Guy Dawney because the old building was in a bad state of repair and was too far away from the inhabitants of the village.  Sir Guy saved the old church bell given by Edmund Darell and his wife Isabella before she died in 1438. He also preserved the bones of Thomas Magnus (a leading official of Henry VIII’s) and the brass memorial to him.

By 1847 the church was again in a very poor state, so the lord of the manor Viscount Downe asked William Butterfield of London to build a new church to combine the best of the old with the finest of the new. The old church bell was transferred to the new tower and the new St Cuthbert’s was dedicated on Ascension Day 1848.

The present church is a neat stone building under a graduated slate roof with a broached spire clad in oak shingles.  It consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, West tower and South porch.  There is a belfry which contains three bells, and an attractive lychgate which provides a roofed gateway into the churchyard. The church provides a beautiful location for weddings.

Members of the Church are involved in village life and organise, a Lent Lunch and Harvest Festival, and various concerts exhibitions and recitals.