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ST. CRUX PARISH HALL
 
St Crux Hall can be hired for charity fundraising events. To book the hall a letter must be sent to the booking secretary stating which date(s) you require, this must be received by the 1st SEPTEMBER each year.

Requests must be made in writing to:

 

                                    Mrs. Dorothy Lee

                                    St. Crux Bookings Secretary

                                    35 Trentholme Drive

                                    The Mount

                                    YORK    YO24 1El

Please mark on the reverse of the envelope “Bookings for 2011”.

 

Letters should reach the Secretary NO LATER than 1st September 2010 and include the following information:

 

1.                  Name of Charity/Church/Group etc. for which the booking is required.

 

 

2.                  Preferred date(s). PLEASE NOTE that in future only TWO dates may be booked, one of which may be a Friday or Saturday (if available) and one other weekday.

3.                  Please give at least FOUR alternative dates in case the preferred date(s) are not available.

4.                  Name, Address and telephone number (e-mail where appropriate) of the person making the booking.

5.                  A stamped, addressed envelope, suitable for forwarding the Booking Form and copy of the Regulations, is requested.

6.                  In order that the bookings are as fair and equitable as possible, please do not include more than one  booking request per letter –

A SEPARATE LETTER IS ESSENTIAL FROM  EACH  DIFFERENT ORGANISATION.

 

All letters will be placed in a cardboard box on receipt.  No letters will be opened until the morning of 1st September 2010 when they will be randomly selected from the box.  Another independent person will assist the Bookings Secretary with the procedure.

 

St. Crux Hall takes it's name from, and stands on the site of, a once great church.
St Crux was not a person; the name is a corruption of "Saincte Crusses" - Holy Cross Church. St Helen, whose son Constantine was proclaimed Roman Empror in York, asserted discovery of the true Cross about 326AD. Perhaps the annual celebration festival of this gave the name to this church. Though carved Saxon cross fragments have been found on the site, we know nothing of the earlier churches until the Domesday Book (1085-6) which tells us the church belonged to the Count of Mortain, brother of William the Conqueror.
The church gradually fell into disrepair; the original tower remained but the rest of the church was rebuilt in stone and was re-dedicated on the 6th September 1424. 273 years later the old tower was rebuilt in the Italian style, red brick with stone dressings, cupola on top with a large weather-vane and stone "vases" at each corner of the tower. The foundation stone was laid on 1st April 1697 but, unfortunately, the tower had poor foundations and was to be the cause of endless trouble in years to come.
St Crux was the finest perpendicular church in York, Built on the double cube principle, it was 104 feet long, 52 feet wide and 52 feet high. It was 7 bays long, nave and chancel were undivided, with side aisles 25 feet high. The high clerestory would fill the church with light. It covered the whole of the exisiting site plus an East end area in line with Colliergate. (At a later date this was sold to the Corporation to widen Whipmawhopmagate.) Earlier in 1769, the Corporation had also taken over the churchyard to the south of the church to widen Pavement. There were four chapels and the Registers date from 1540. 
 
Pavement was the centre of commercial life and many great men and their families lived here and worshipped at St Crux. However, by the middle of the 19th century, many of the wealthier people had begun moving to the suburbs, and their support shifted to the building of new churches there. Those who replaced them in the parish were unable to provide the same level of financial support for the maintenance of the church.
By 1850 there were ominous signs of the church being under strain. Small repairs were done but in 1878 when the tower began to lean dangerously the City Council ordered it to be taken down. By 1881 the whole church was declared unsafe for services and the congregation moved to Holy Trinity, Kings Court (demolished 1935).
An appeal was launched to rebuild the church and the Archbishop chaired two public meatings. Plans were drawn and a faculty issued in February 1884. The estimated cost was £3,000.00 and it was decided to start building when £2,000.00 had been raised. The church was partially demolished but further structural problems were discovered. The cost rose to £5,000.00 and for two years the church remained roofless and partially demolished while fund raising efforts continued.
By this time the parish had joined with All Saints Pavement, and in 1887 the decision was taken to clear the site and use what money was left to buid the present Hall to serve as a Sunday school and as Parish room housing as many of the old monuments as possible.
Outside you can still see the height of the aisle walls and the North wall of the Hall is part of this. The East Window of the Hall came from the South aisle. Below the floor are rows of grave slabs and round the walls are other monuments. The bell, dated 1528 and 1678, went together with the font to Bishopthorpe church and the East Window to St Martins, Coney Street.
The Communion table, Lectern, some stalls, Lord Mayors Boards, the Percy helmet and the Royal Arms of 1668 can all be seen in All Saints Pavement. The doors of the Hall are early 15th century and were the South doors of the church; above them is an oak cornice dated 1671 bearing the arms of Marmaduke Rawdon. He built the market cross at the East End of All Saints and when this was demolished in 1818 the cornice was taken to St Crux. There are two Herbert hatchments in the roof and note should be taken of the carved corbel stones from the aisle roof in the North and South walls.
The new Hall was heated by a large circular stove and lit by two pendants of six gas lights. The total cost of erection and fitting was just over £600.00. The Hall was opened on the 28th February 1888 by Dean A. Pury-Cust and Canon James Raine said that the building would preserve the monuments and would not stand in the way of the future rebuilding of the church. About 200 people then had tea in the Corn Exchange in All Saints Walk (demolished 1982). The Hall and memorials were restored in 1981 by the feoffees of St Crux with help from the York Civic Trust.