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Quotation from St Michael's website:

"The earliest record we have of St Michael’s Church is around 1150 AD when the Gilbertine Priory of Old Malton was given two new Norman Churches of St Michael & St Leonard in ‘New’ Malton as Chapels of Ease.

Why there were two Norman churches in Malton is something of a mystery. It has been suggested that Malton developed around two centres. A ‘Castle Centre’ where houses and people were dependant upon the castle; and a ‘Market Centre’ where people depended on the trade of the market. Therefore St Michael’s would be the town church in the Market Place and St Leonard’s the Church based on the castle. (St Leonard is often thought of as the patron saint of prisoners and captured soldiers).

The fact that Malton has two such central churches is unusual as most Yorkshire market towns have a single great church. This is almost certainly due to the existence of the Priory Church at Old Malton, whose monks would have preferred to keep two small subservient Churches rather than one large rival church.

Throughout the history of St Michael’s there have been several stages of reconstruction and restoration, however parts of the original Norman building do remain, notably the pillars and the capitals of the North Aisle and the capitals of the pillars in the South Aisle. The Font is of unusual design and is probably as old as the church. Small traces of colour show that in medieval times it had been painted.

Apart from this everything that looks Norman – the round headed windows in the aisles and the clerestory and the big Chancel Arch belong to the 19th century. The Tower is the next oldest part of the church and was added in the 15th century. An old painting of the Market Place in the 1830s shows the Tower with a small low door, a square window with a clock above, and the top of the Tower surrounded by an iron railing instead of the present battlements. The present door and the window above are 19th century. (The picture also shows the town ‘shambles’ or the butchers shops right up against the north aisle windows)."

Created: Thu, 7 Aug 2014, Updated: Fri, 8 Aug 2014