York No. 28 / Eboracum / Eburacum / Eburākon / Eoforwic / Everwic / Jórvík

There are twelve entries for York in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE6052/york/] [accessed 8 August 2019] eight of which mentions a church in it [cf. infra]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York, 1961) notes: "An extremely early foundation for the church of ST. MICHAEL-LE-BELFREY has sometimes been suggested on the strength of a passage in the life of St. John of Beverley which describes the saint visiting a church of St. Michael while in York. [...] Some doubt may be thrown on the passage by the fact that similar circumstances are mentioned in connexion with St. John at Hexham. [...] The church is not mentioned in the papal confirmation of 1194 [...] but it was certainly in the hands of the chapter by 1294. [...] The present church [...] was built between 1525 and 1536; no architectural features of any earlier structure remain. It comprises nave with north and south aisles, a vestry at the east end, and a bell-turret over the west end of the clerestoried nave. The north and south doorways and the whole of the west front were restored in 1867 by G. F. Jones. The gallery was erected in 1785. The furnishings, like the fabric, appear to have been much neglected in the 15th century and little has survived from the earlier church. [...] The baptism of Guy Fawkes occurs in the register under the date 16 April 1570"; the VCH entry mentions no font in it. St. Michael le Belfrey was the medieval parish church of the cathedral neighbourhood -the cathedral itself not being a parish church-, but was demolished in the early-16th century and completely re-built in the mid-16th century. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE6028052128 ] notes: "Parish church.1525-37 with vestry,west front and bellcote of 1867.C19 alterations by G Fowler Jones"; no font mentioned here either. [NB: we have no information on the baptismal font of the medieval church]