Media centre

Roland Deller, our Project Director, welcomes you to the media centre. Here you can find all of our external communications and the latest news about the project.

Beverley comes face to face with its Tudor past

13 October 2020

St Mary’s presents an exhibition exploring Beverley’s dramatic Tudor history through life-size reproductions of paintings in the National Portrait Gallery and artefacts from the church itself.

Read press release

Bishop blesses Narnia carvings

17 August 2020

The Bishop of Hull visits St Mary’s to bless the fourteen new stone carvings based on characters from the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, in the presence of the stonemasons who created them. A video of the ceremony can be viewed here.

On 21st August 2020, Smithsonian Magazine ran the story: Stone Sculptures of Chronicles of Narnia Characters to Adorn Medieval Church; Statues of Aslan, the White Witch and other mythical beings will replace weathered carvings at St. Mary’s Church in Yorkshire
On 23rd August 2020, the Narnia carvings featured as a news item on BBC Sunday Morning Live. Watch a short clip of the show here.
On 19th August 2020 the Guardian ran an article about the project titled, ‘Yorkshire church to be adorned with Chronicles of Narnia statues: St Mary’s church in Beverley commissions sculptures of CS Lewis characters to replace medieval carvings’.
Page 11 of the Western Daily Press on 18th August 2020: The Bishop of Hull Alison White blesses a statue of Aslan, a character from the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, at St
Mary’s Church in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
Page 4 of The Times on 18th August 2020: Alison White, bishop of Hull, blesses a carving of Aslan, the lion who protects CS Lewis’ Narnia from evil, for the north nave of St Mary’s Church, Beverley.
Page 3 of The Daily Telegraph on 18th August 2020: Lord’s lion Bishop of Hull Alison White blesses a bust of Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia, one of 14 children’s characters sculpted for St Mary’s Church, in Beverley.

Narnia comes to Beverley this summer

16 July 2020

St Mary’s mounts a pop-up summer exhibition of its new stone carvings at street level. A special opportunity to see the carvings face to face before they are fixed high up on the walls of the church. The display opens on July 17th and includes an activity trail for children and families.

The Chronicles of Narnia to be celebrated in stone on major Yorkshire parish church

22 June 2020

St Mary’s Church in Beverley has announced that new stone carvings on the exterior of the building will feature fourteen characters from the ever-popular children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.

Read press release
Read The i article: “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight”
Read Yorkshire Post article: “Mane attraction: Aslan the lion carves starring role at church”
Read the Church Times coverage of the story on Friday, 3rd July 2020
Read The York Press piece of 24th June 2020: “Sculptor based near York creates characters from The Chronicles of Narnia”
Read Just Beverley article

Read BBC News story

Beverley’s ‘town church’ achieves milestone in restoration works on 500th anniversary of dramatic event

29 April 2020

Today, April 29th, St Mary’s Church Beverley – home to some of the finest medieval architecture of any parish church in the country – announces that the first phase in its major restoration programme has reached the halfway point on schedule, despite the coronacrisis  and the three storms which have passed through since the scaffolding was put up in February!

Read press release
Listen to BBC Radio Humberside coverage
Read Yorkshire Post article

Urgent restoration works begin at St Mary’s with National Lottery support

11 December 2019

Work is underway at St Mary’s Church, Beverley, to save its remarkable collection of medieval and Tudor roof bosses thanks to a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £421,400 awarded earlier this year.  Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses on the 600 bosses on St Mary’s ceilings, which are at risk due to the church’s crumbling stonework.

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That St Mary at Beverley is one of the most beautiful parish churches of England is universal knowledge.

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner