Bosses Project

There are over 600 bosses on St Mary’s ceilings. These curious carvings are a vibrant visual record of the lives, hopes and dreams of our medieval and Tudor ancestors – a way of storytelling without words. 

We are preserving and interpreting this exceptional heritage as part of a project to restore the crumbling stonework of the north nave clerestory – a vulnerable area of the church, in which many of the bosses are housed. This marks the first phase in a major proposed programme of essential repairs to the building over the next ten years.

The boss shown is one of several carvings in St Mary’s that depict musicians. We can presume that these carvings were designed to reflect the practices of everyday life in Tudor Beverley, as well as celebrating the special function of the church as a venue for music.