In Christian history Leavening has always been paired with Acklam, in the Acklam-cum-Leavening Parish. The church was for a long time located in Acklam, Leavening only getting a chapel-of-ease in 1850. Therefore all of Leavenings marriages, baptisms and funerals were carried out in Acklam. The Domesday Book in 1086 lists Acklam as having “A church” (no mention of a priest as well), whereas Kirkham is mentioned as “A church is there and a priest”. This would suggest that Acklam only warranted a visiting priest.
After the Domesday Book entry, the next mention of a church in Acklam comes in the time of the reign of King Stephen, when the Scots were raiding southwards. Herbert the Chamberlain to the King of Scotland was given land in Acklam and Leavening. His chief tenants the Scures family gave the church to Thornton Abbey at Barrow-on-Humber. This was confirmed by Herbert’s son Stephen at around 1154. Difficult to look after from across the Humber, so it was exchanged with the Archbishop of York for nearer churches in Holderness in 1221-22. A record of priests from Alexander de Wakefield in 1334 to Edward Bradley in 1680 still exists. Being a small church it was probably farmed out to chaplains by absentee priests. Chaplains were the apprentices and had to exist on a very low wage whilst the benefits and tithes went to the priests. It is possible that Alexander de Wakefield was one of these priests who benefited. In 1334 there is mention of Alexander’s selling a messuage, 3 tofts and 13 bovates of land in Acklam and Leavening to Roger and Isobel de Trussebut.
Acklam was minor parish with a regular posting of of chaplains until the early 16th century, when William Melton (the Chancellor of Yorkminster from 1495), had his country residence there. It is then that Acklam would have both a vicar (Edmund Cooke) and a chaplain (Robert Ellerton) residing in the parish.
The effect of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII to the area was that the monks of Kirkham Priory giving up their manor and lands in Leavening.
Under Edward VI in 1552 a survey of church goods was taken which was intended to allow parliament to seize all church plate bar one chalice and one paten. This followed the 1550 Act Against Superstitious Books and Images. The intentions were to refill the Treasury, to bring a Protestant simplicity to churches and to remove the last traces of Catholicism.
The full list reads:
In Primis: One calles parcell gilt.
Item:iiij vestmentes: whereof one of blew silke, one of tauney silk, one of bustaine, and one of blak.
Item:ij candelsteckes, iij alter clothes of lining clothe.
Item:ij belles, one towell of lyning clothe.
In 1650, Parliament ordered a survey of all the possesions of the bishops and Dean and Chapters, with the intention of seizure. The entry for Acklam reads:
“The parish church scituate at Acklam two miles from any other church. The parsonage is the inheritance of Mr. William Palmer of Southwell, worth yearly £90. The vicarage is worth yearly £20. Mr. John Luccocke, preacher”. (Acklam, Leavening, Barthorpe)
In 1720 another outbreak of puritanical fervour, of making worship more open. Heneage Dering the Dean of Ripon, but who was also Archdeacon of the East Riding, ordered the destruction of the rood screens above the chancel. Acklam managed to hold onto its screen until 1737, when it was removed from the church.
Around this time the Quakers appeared in the area. Robert Addison in his Topographical History of Leavening (1831), cannot say whether they were resident in Leavening or not, but says there was a parcel of land 20 yards square known as the Quakers Burial Ground. By his time the Quakers were a fading memory in the village.
Methodism began to make its mark in the late 18th century. Its founder John Wesley preached in York in 1743. Their first meetings were in their own houses or a convenient barn until the first Wesleyan chapel at Acklam was built in 1794. Leavening did not get its own until 1824. However by then Methodism had sundered and the Primitive Methodists “The Ranters” built theirs in Leavening four years earlier than the Wesleyans.
Congregations sizes at these times were for Acklam church a yearly average of 40, and in Leavening 60. The Wesleyan Methodists had similar figures. The Primitive Methodists however could hold three services every Sunday, some services holding over a hundred worshippers.
The Wesleyan chapel is still in use now, but the Primitive Methodist chapel was eventually closed and turned into a barn. This was later demolished and a bungalow not occupies the site.
In 1850 a Church School was built in Leavening and was licensed to be used as a chapel-of ease to Acklam church. In 1965 it was rededicated The Venerable Bede and is a church in its own right.
The church at Acklam had been partially rebuilt in 1790, but the rebuilding in 1868 was more drastic. The architects were J.B & W. Atkinson (also responsible for Burythorpe church in 1858) and the cost was about £1300! A large sum for a small parish. As typical of such enthusiastic rebuilds in this era much was ripped out and plastered over without thought of what medieval was there, the practice of centuries was torn out root and branch. This was not the end of the financial worries for the church at Acklam. In 1900 it had to be underpinned at the cost of £500. In 1911 a gale blew down the south buttress, rendering the church unsafe. This cost £650 to restore. However the church continued to deteriorate until it was demolished in 1972. The graveyard is still active and is in a picturesque setting. The present church in Acklam was originally the Methodist Chapel.
