Sorting old files during lockdown, I found a 1982 leaflet advertising ‘St Mary’s Museum of Church Art’ at Levisham, North Yorkshire. The leaflet claims that ‘Treasures of art, sculpture and much more, from churches throughout England have been collected together’, and with ‘photographs, drawings, models and sound’ create tableaux ‘to bring alive the story of the English Parish Church.’
Sounds wonderful, but while a quick google reveals a romantic ruined church in beautiful countryside, there are no hints it ever contained a museum. The ‘Society for the Promotion of the Preservation of English Parish Churches’, which issued my leaflet, held a conference at Bradford Cathedral in 1980, registered as a charity in 1982, but was removed in 2000 because it ‘does not operate’.
There seems to be a fascinating, and perhaps sad, story behind all this. Can anyone tell that story?
Crispin Paine
Image: Ruin of St. Mary’s Church, Levisham (Copyright Mick Garratt, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence)
Religion & Collections 
Hi Crispin,
I read with interest your blog post and was intrigued to find out more. I love a puzzle, especially when it means I can research something obscure! After doing some digging, I found an article in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal – Issue 58 from 1986. It contains an interesting article about the history of St. Mary’s and the archaeological excavation in the late 1970s subsequent to the church falling out of use in the 1950s. It’s an interesting article as it is; however, it throws some light on the puzzle you posed regarding the church art museum.
From page 59: “The scheme to turn St Mary’s into a parochial retreat was eventually abandoned, and the church passed briefly into the care of The Society for the Promotion of the Preservation of English Parish Churches (SPEC) and their secretary, Mr. A. Whitworth, whose intention was to open the building as a museum of church art. To this end, Mr. Whitworth took charge of the sculptured stones recovered from the fabric. When the SPEC scheme foundered, all the stones except the warrior fragment were recovered by the authors from the church and placed for safe-keeping in the Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole; the whereabouts of the other stone is unknown.” [reproduced from https://archive.org/stream/YAJ0581986/YAJ0581986_djvu.txt accessed 2229 14082020]
I turned up another nugget of information from the Pennine Magazine, Vol.1 Issue 1 Nov/Dec 1979, in their section about exhibitions:
“The other gem which has been presented in 1979, is the touring exhibition The Art of the Church organized by the Society for the Promotion of the Preservation of English Parish Churches, affectionately known as SPEC.
The exhibition is a blend of prints, plans and photographs which illustrate the glorious craftsmanship of the medieval workman, and is designed to open the eye to everyday examples that are often neglected by being so frequently seen. Alan Whitworth, who apart from organising and setting up The Art of the Church Exhibition, is the editor of SPEC’s magazine Ashlar (subscription £3.00 p.a.).” [reproduced from https://penninemagazine.wordpress.com/vol-1-issue-1-novemberdecember-1979-exhibitions/ accessed 2251 14082020]
Unfortunately, no hints as to why ‘the SPEC scheme foundered’; I’ve also been unable to find anything relating to the magazine Ashlar mentioned in the Pennine magazine.
Sadly I feel I have raised more questions than I’ve answered, but at least it’s a little background for your flier!
Lisa Search
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Fascinating! Alan Whitworth seems to be a prolific local historian in Yorkshire – is anyone in touch with him?
Crispin
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