File:15-York-011.jpg

York Minster, West front. Statues of Vavassour (left, holding a stone, with his coat of arms) and Percy (right, holding timber, with his coat of arms). Arthur Perceval Purey-Cust, Heraldry of York Minster, 1890-96, p.321[1]:Roger of Pont 1'Eveque was appointed archbishop, 1171, and he at once commenced to rebuild the choir; and Walter de Percy, Lord of Rougemont, descended from a younger son of Alan de Percy, placed his forest at Bolton Percy at the entire disposal of the archbishop, for the supply of whatever timber might be required, as long as he lived.* I conclude that the grant of stone, previously granted by the head of the house of Percy, was continued ; at any rate his vavasour was determined not to be lacking in seasonable generosity, for in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum there is a grant from Robert le Vavasour, giving, granting, and confirming, for a pure and perpetual alms to God and the blessed Peter, and to the church of York, for the health of his soul and the souls of his wife Julian and his ancestors, " a full and free passage " through the ancient and customary paths and ways, without any "impediment and contradiction in going and returning along Thievesdale, "which is my own free tenure, for what shall be sufficient for the fabric "of the said church, as often as they shall have occasion to rebuild or " enlarge the said church."f I suppose that, at that time, the quarry did not belong to him, or that, being only vavasour, he had no right to give the substance of the soil, but that he had the right to certain tolls for passage which he generously waived on behalf of the church".

p.323: " And thus we can understand why Percy and Vavasour should stand side by side over the west door, with Archbishop Melton's hand raised over them in blessing (not, indeed, the present modern figures, but the figures which they have replaced), the former bearing a log of wood,