Holy Trinity Micklegate is a parish church of the Church of England, located on the west bank of the River Ouse inside the ancient walled city of York. The church building is a complex structure incorporating parts of the fabric of a medieval priory church dedicated to Holy Trinity and possibly an adjunct medieval parish church dedicated to St Nicholas (although this is disputed).
Holy Trinity was founded prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, and is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as one of five great northern churches (alongside, amongst others, York Minster).
In around 1089 this church was re-founded by its new Norman lord as a Benedictine priory, served by a community of monks. It may be at that date a 'double church' was constructed, with one half (Holy Trinity) providing a place of worship for the monastic community and a second (dedicated to St Nicholas) providing religious services to the lay community of the parish.
Holy Trinity Today
Its parish today includes the former parishes of two neighbouring churches, St John and St Martin in Micklegate, which are now redundant as places of worship and have been put to other uses. All four of these churches originated in the Middle Ages, and their buildings are all listed monuments. They share a rich and long history extending back nearly two millennia.
Indeed what we see in the landscape of surviving church buildings in Micklegate is only part of a formerly more extensive religious topography in this neighbourhood of York. All Saints North Street and St Mary Bishophill Junior survive as active churches with independent parishes. The churches of St Gregory in Micklegate, St Clement in Clementhorpe and two suburban chapels of St James and St Mary, together with suburban hospitals dedicated to St Katherine and St Thomas all disappeared shortly after the Reformation, while the redundant church of St Mary Bishophill Senior was demolished in the 1960s.
However, while many older churches have been lost, new religious communities in modern times have resulted in the construction of new chapels and the adaptation of secular buildings to new religious uses. The religious landscape continues to evolve and change, as it always has.