'Leper Squints' in Medieval Churches | Selby Abbey | 2022 

Great film Rob. It is, as you say, a very unusual one, especially as it cuts through decorative mouldings.

The Squint in Selby provides a view from the side Chapel towards what is happening at the main Church altar, so therefore it serves as a Hagioscope. It's a bit long for a put log, for it is unlikely that such a scaffold beam would need to pass right through a wall, particularly at such an angle, especially so in low down the structure. There should be corresponding features elsewhere in the building if it were for that purpose, but there isn't, at least none that are known. The Leper thing is a bit of an urban myth, dreamt up likely in post Reformation times to mock former Catholic practices. There are similar features elsewhere, some described, with the same sort of mythology, as Anchorite squints. Before the Lathom Chapel was built there would be no reason for driving such a hole through the thickest part of the wall as it is, for any requirement for such a squint, or put-log could have been served anywhere further east in the north wall, much more easily, & with a better view of the Sanctuary. However, once the Chantry was built it is only at the place where it is, in the corner of the Chapel, & at that angle, that a sight of the sanctuary could have been gained from within it, which also necessitated the driving through of that part of the structure. Otherwise it makes no sense. It is presumed that the north transept was similar in width to the southern one, so that the 'viewer's' end of the squint was outside of the building, so it really didn't have to be where it is before such a Chapel was built.