About the year 1430 the citizens of Thirsk decided that their ancient parish church of St. Mary was old-fashioned and unworthy of the developing town, so they decided to build a new one. As a result, over the next eighty years or so, they produced what Pevsner described as ‘without question, the most spectacular Perpendicular church in the North Riding’. Among its many beauties was a handsome south porch with a roomy chamber or parvise above. The use of such chambers is often a matter of speculation but we know that, for a time at least, this room at Thirsk provided a hermitage.