Frith stool - Beverley Minster

3D Model

The stone chair in the sanctuary of Beverley Minster is known as the Frith or Peace stool. It is Anglo-Saxon, possibly 8th century, and is traditionally associated with the monastery and episcopacy of St John of Beverley. There is a similar such stool or chair in Hexham and there were known to be others once in Ripon and York. The chisel marks on the back of the chair show it was once part of a larger structure, possibly an episcopal throne, although its original function is uncertain. It is now known as the sanctuary chair (from its current location) and is associated with the administration of the Minster’s unusually extended medieval right of sanctuary which encompassed the whole town.