St Mary's Chapel, Crathorne
St Mary's Chapel, Crathorne
St Mary’s is a Grade II* Roman Catholic chapel on Hutton Rudby Road, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, in the Diocese of Middlesbrough and the parish of St Joseph, Stokesley. Taking Stock calls it of exceptional importance for its complete Gothick interior.
- Location
- Crathorne, Yorkshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Yorkshire
- City / town
- Crathorne
- Address
- Hutton Rudby Road, Crathorne, Yorkshire, TS15 0BB
- Postcode
- TS15 0BB
- Built
- 1820–21 (list description gives 1777; parish and Taking Stock prefer 1821)
- Denomination
- Catholic Church
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Middlesbrough
- Parish
- St Joseph Stokesley
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Gothick
- Materials
- Local handmade light red brick in English garden wall bond; Welsh slate roof with stone gable coping
- Grid reference
- NZ 442 074
- Opening hours
- Open by appointment.
- Access
- Ramp or level access available on request. Accessible toilets in church
Overview
The list description dates the chapel to 1777, built for the Crathorne family, recusant former lords of the manor. Taking Stock and the parish history, following Peter Markey, challenge that date: a document of 1816 describes the then chapel as formerly a cowhouse, and documents indicate the present chapel complete by the end of 1821, probably through Fr George Corless using a 1742 Crathorne endowment. Fabric is local handmade light red brick in English garden wall bond, with a Welsh slate roof, stone gable coping and bracketed eaves. It is one tall storey, with three Tudor-arched roll-moulded windows with interlaced glazing bars and a sill band, and a later south-west porch in similar style.
The Gothick interior retains galleries and box pews. The chapel is attached to an eighteenth-century former priest’s house, now in separate ownership. It was restored from the mid-1960s and again in a campaign completed in August 2022. It is one of the earliest pre-Emancipation Catholic chapels in the north-east of England.