“We adore and praise thee thou holy Jesus, because thou hast redeemed us by thy Holy Cross, 1116”.

This inscription was found cut into a beam during restoration of the roof in the 18th Century.

The founder was William de Curcy, son-in-law of Robert de Romelli, the Norman baron to whom the manor of Harewood was given by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings.

This original church was completely rebuilt in the 15th-century by the descendants of Sir William de Aldeburgh (the builder of Harewood Castle), and altered again in the late 18th-century, both by John Carr, the architect of Harewood House, and by Edwin Lascelles’ surveyor, John Belwood.

These changes were not universally admired: ‘About the year 1793, a series of most barbarous alterations were carried into effect, which, to say the least of them, reflect discredit upon those who were concerned in them,’ thunders John Jones in his History of Harewood of 1859.

Stained-glass windows were removed and sold, carved oak seats replaced by pews, the oak open roof replaced by deal rafters. Shortly after John Jones’ rant, the Victorian architect Sir Gilbert Scott altered some of the alterations, so what you see today is something of a hybrid.

But the outstanding feature of Harewood Church is its magnificent collection of alabaster tombs, often said to be the finest in England outside a cathedral.