It is some time since I visited this church and set up my Lastingham pages so I thought I should take some newer photographs and add a little more detail, so here it is.
In 654 AD a monastery was set up in Lastingham, then a place 'more suitable for robbers and haunts of wild beasts than for human habitation'. St. Cedd was its founder and he was later succeeded as abbot by his brother, St. Chad. Upon Cedd's death he was buried at Lastingham and later interred to the right of the altar in the newly built stone church, this church replaced a wooden structure on the same site. Little more is known of that church.
Later, in 1078 Stephen came from Whitby to restore the monastery and built a crypt over the place where Cedd was said to be buried. It is this which forms the crypt of the present church. He started to build a stone church above it but this work was soon abandoned. In 1228 a parish priest was appointed and the partly built church was deemed large enough for his needs and he enclosed it with the present west wall.
The crypt would originally have been entered via door in the north wall to allow easy access for pilgrims. It is thought to be the only one in England with an apse, chancel, nave and aisles. The Norman supporting columns appear to have pre-conquest bases indicating they may have belonged to the earlier church. The crypt has remained relatively unchanged.
