Thirsk is an old market town in North Yorkshire, 20 miles to the north of York.
A visit to the ancient crypt beneath Lastingham church in 2023, also noted some curious scrape marks in the stonework of the church tower. These vertical scrape marks are found on some old churches, and are usually known as ‘Arrow Stones’, with the local explanation that they were made long ago by villagers sharpening arrows heads, or Cromwell’s soldiers sharpening their weapons. There is no real evidence for this ever happening, and similar marks on religious building in France, Germany and Italy, were made by people collecting powdered stone for use in homemade medicines. The idea seems to have been that these buildings were blessed and holy places, and so the actual fabric of the building was also holy and would have healing powers. A similar belief was attached to holy wells, where the water was believed to have healing properties, and during medieval times many church fonts had a lid with a lock to prevent people taking the holy water and using it for their own purposes.
An internet search for these ‘Arrow stones’ showed that similar marks can be found in the porch of St. Mary’s Church in Thirsk, and so a visit was made to see them.
While taking a photograph of the scrapes inside the porch, a church volunteer informed me that the marks were caused by arrows being sharpened on the stones, so this is the local story at Thirsk too. It was quite a surprise to see the sheer number of scrape marks both outside and inside the church. There are probably well over 100 on the outside walls of the church and inside the porch, while there are even some inside the church, on the wall behind the altar and in the Sedilia (priest seats) nearby.
The markings on the outside walls of the church extend all the way around the building, with many being located around the back of the church on its west and north sides, and in the corners formed by the buttresses. If the marks were made by people gathering ‘holy stone dust’, then they may have chosen parts of the church walls where there was less chance of being seen, as this would still be regarded a rather superstitious practice by the church authorities. However, the scrape marks near the altar inside the church might suggest that some of the old time priests were also involved in collecting the stone dust from the holiest part of the church.
Here is a selection of the scrape marks on the outside walls of the church.
After Notes
It may be relevant that both Thirsk and Lastingham churches are dedicated to Saint Mary. The image of Mary as a mother with the infant Jesus may have led to the powdered stone from churches dedicated to her being used in folk medicines connected with child birth or childhood illnesses.
Old maps show that there was a holy well called the Lady Well to the east of the church.
