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A monument to three families
Dec 19, 2007
CONTINUING my recent theme, you pass the ‘new' Rokeby
church when travelling along the A66. It's on the right of the road if you are
driving from Scotch Corner to Bowes, not far past Greta Bridge. There is a farm
and the old school nearby but nothing else.
The ‘old' Rokeby church used to stand down near where the River Greta joins the Tees, adjacent to the Dairy Bridge. There is virtually nothing left of the old church.
The story of Rokeby church follows the rise and fall in the fortunes of three gentry families: the Rokebys, the Robinsons and the Morritts.
In 1610, Sir Thomas Rokeby sold his lands in Mortham and Rokeby to William Robinson, of Brignall, perhaps following a fall in his fortunes.
However, according to the church registers, the Rokebys continued to live in the parish. For instance, the baptisms of the children of Mr Christopher Rookeby are recorded in 1623, 1625, 1626, 1628, 1631, 1636 - they went in for big families in those days, didn't they?
The Rokeby family came to the old church at the end of their lives as well. Burials of members of the Rokeby family also feature in the records, including that of Sir Thomas Rookeby, knight, who was buried on May 31, 1633. You'll notice that they spelt their name ‘Rookeby' then - no doubt after the rooks that nested near the Dairy Bridge.
I wonder if the Rokebys continued to live at Mortham Tower, their ancestral home, even after they had sold their land?
The Robinson family also made numerous appearances in the parish registers. Maybe both families met on a Sunday whilst attending service at the old church.
The new Rokeby church is really an estate church. Sir Thomas Robinson, Baronet, inherited the estate in 1720 when he was about 20 years of age.
After his marriage in 1728, Sir Thomas set about rebuilding the hall at Rokeby. He was something of an amateur architect and it is thought he designed Rokeby Park himself in the fashionable classical style. Pevsner, the famous architectural historian, describes it rather grandly as ‘Palladio-Burlington'. The house was completed by 1735.
The new church though, must have been an afterthought because although Sir Thomas began to build it in 1740, another 30 years elapsed before it was finished. He would no doubt pass the old church whenever he walked or rode across the park to the Meeting of the Waters or to Mortham Tower.
There is yet another Rokeby baptism recorded for 1777, so maybe the family were still at Mortham then - in fact, the last mention of the Rokeby family in the registers was in 1796.
The old church wouldn't have matched Sir Thomas Robinson's new and very fashionably modern hall. Why didn't Sir Thomas replace the church at the same time as he built Rokeby Park? Maybe he simply over-reached himself and ran out of money.
In 1769, Sir Thomas was obliged to sell Rokeby to John Sawrey Morritt because of his extravagance. So he never saw his church consecrated and when it was eventually brought into use, it was incomplete.
It is possible to see the demolishing of the old church and the building of the new in two entries in the registers. In the marriage register on February 19, 1776, is written: "Thomas Bell & Margaret Camplin, both this parish by Banns in the parish church of Brignall, the church of Rookby being in Ruins, by James Farrer, Vicar of Brignall and Minister of Rookby."
The following year, in May 13, 1777, we read the following: "Joshua Peel, parish Gilling & Ann Hunter of this parish by Banns by James Farrer, Minister. This marriage (being the first since the Consecration of the New Church) was solemniz'd betwixt us."
The new church was consecrated in May 1776. According to Pevsner, the church is virtually the same as Sir Thomas's church at his family home at Glynde in Sussex, so Rokeby church may well have been designed by him. But why did he choose to build the church on that particular site? And why didn't he orientate it east-west in keeping with Christian tradition? It may be that the church wasn't ready for use when the Morritts took over the estate.
Revd William Oliver, who transcribed the registers, believed that John Sawrey Morritt consulted the architect John Carr who supervised the completion of the building.
Mind you, the church was opened without a chancel - just with a nave. And it remained incomplete for the next 100 years. It is a tribute to the Morritt family that when in 1877 they decided to add a mausoleum chapel as a chancel to the church, they chose to build it in Renaissance style.
They might well have followed the tradition of the time and built it in Gothic. As it is the church is a unity, pleasing on the eye, appearing spacious and filled with light. It stands as a monument to the three families, the Rokebys, Robinsons and Morritts, who all in their own ways loved this part of the world.
First published in the Mercury December 12, 2007