St William's College is a Mediaeval building in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, originally built to provide accommodation for priests attached to chantry chapels at nearby

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

. It is a Grade I listed building. The college was founded in 1460 by George Neville and the

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to house twenty-three priests and a provost.Peter F. Ryder, ''Medieval Buildings of Yorkshire'', p.22 It was named after St William of York. In 1465, work started on the present building. This courtyard structure may incorporate parts of two earlier houses. It included a great hall to the north, with a chapel to its east. The hall survives in part, but its ceiling has been lowered and the plasterwork was replaced in 1910. The posts of a

screens passage A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great c ...

also remain, the other side of which is the fireplace of the original kitchen. It has been suggested that doorways led off the courtyard to staircases, with rooms for the provost and fellows of the college leading off them.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

and David Neave, ''

The Buildings of England ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

: Yorkshire: York and the East Riding'' (2nd Edition), pp.208–209 While the college was not a monastic establishment, it was affected by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as in 1548 the building was converted to a substantial house, with later tenants including

Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, PC (c. 1669 – 1 May 1738) was a British nobleman, peer, and statesman. Charles Howard was the eldest son of Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle, and inherited his title on the death of his father in 169 ...

. Around this time, a single main staircase was added, which survives, while a room to the south-west has remains of wall paintings from this era. In the seventeenth century, the "Bishop's Chamber" was created on the first floor, to the west of the great hall, and it survives largely intact. In the eighteenth-century, part of the ground floor was used for retail, and bow windows were added, which still survive. Otherwise, the façade generally survives as built, with an ashlar ground floor and a timber-framed, jettied upper floor. The doorway itself is a replacement, but the coats of arms above are from about 1670, and carvings of Saint Christopher and the

Virgin and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent ...

either side of the entrance also survive.

Before restoration

File:York, St William’s College, postcard.jpg The building was bought by the

Province of York The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 12 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...

in 1902 for use by its convocation, and

Temple Moore Temple Lushington Moore (7 June 1856 – 30 June 1920) was an English architect who practised in London. He is famed for a series of fine Gothic Revival churches built between about 1890 and 1917 and also restored many churches and designed ch ...

then restored it. Among his alterations were the creation of the Maclagan Memorial Hall in the upper part of the great hall, where the original roof structure can be seen, although much renewed.

References

Buildings and structures completed in 1465 Grade I listed buildings in York Timber framed buildings in Yorkshire {{Yorkshire-struct-stub