The Church Paintings of Pickering, Yorkshire

Pickering is a small town in north Yorkshire, England, on the edge of the Moors. It is an old place, documented in the Domesday Book. It has a castle, but these days its most famous site is the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

The first church here was built before the year 1000. It was then replaced, and that building was enlarged:

The early Norman Church, which was built around 1140, would have been of simple cruciform layout, with a central tower surrounded by a nave, a chancel and two transepts. Soon, aisles were added to this original structure: the north aisle in about 1150 and the south aisle towards the end of the twelfth century. The present west tower was built in the early part of the thirteenth century, and sometime in the fourteenth century the chancel was widened to cope with the liturgies of the period. A porch was also added, and then, in the fifteenth century, two chantry chapels, either side of the high altar.

Coronation of the Virgin

The church was remodeled again in the 1400s: 

During the 15th Century, the clerestory was constructed and the battlements, or parapets outside were added. The walls of the nave were raised and the roof replaced, and it was at this time, around 1450, that the paintings, which give our church its fame, were first commissioned. They were painted the following decade, as details in the costumes and armour of some of the figures makes clear.

Hell

They were plastered over during the Reformation. Then, in 1852, they were revealed during repairs. Some people loved them, but not the man in charge:

The Vicar at the time, the Rev’d Ponsonby, wanted them re-covered, showing his dislike of them in a letter to the Archbishop of York: ‘As a work of art [they are] fairly ridiculous, would excite feelings of curiosity, and distract the congregation’. He went on to say that ‘the paintings are out of place in a protestant Church, especially in these dangerous times’; he subsequently had them re-covered in a thick yellow wash within a fortnight of the discovery. 

St. Christopher

Not at all clear to me why 1852 was a "dangerous time." 

St. George

Once the fearful vicar was safely dead and buried, the paintings were exposed again. But it was discovered that they had been damaged by the vicar's hasty burying. So they were restored, using as a guide careful drawings made in 1852.

Martyrdom of St. Edmund

Quite a remarkable thing to survive.