---
title: "St Mary Priory, Swine"
description: "Located in Swine, Yorkshire. Built c.1180; early C14 and C15; west tower rebuilt 1787; C19 porch and vestry. Diocese of York. Grade I. Transitional and Decorated style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Yorkshire","East Yorkshire","Swine","Grade I","Cistercian","Priory"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-priory-swine"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:51:02.593Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T14:53:51.333Z"
location: "Swine, Yorkshire"
country: "England"
county: "Yorkshire"
town: "Swine"
address: "Main Street, Swine, Yorkshire, HU11 4JE"
postcode: "HU11 4JE"
built: "c.1180; early C14 and C15; west tower rebuilt 1787; C19 porch and vestry"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Mary"]
diocese: "York"
grade: "I"
style: "Transitional and Decorated"
materials: "Magnesian limestone ashlar; Welsh slate roof"
website: "http://www.skirlaughchurch.org.uk/index.html"
openingHours: "Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church."
parish: "Swine with Ellerby"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1083427"
gridReference: "TA 134 358"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby"
---

# St Mary Priory, Swine

The Priory Church of St Mary the Virgin at Swine, in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire, is a Grade I parish church that incorporates the eastern part of a Cistercian nunnery church.

## Overview

Robert de Verli founded a Cistercian nunnery here in the twelfth century, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and confirmed by papal bull in 1177. The house surrendered at the Dissolution on 9 September 1539. The present parish church, listed by Historic England as formerly the east appendix to the nuns’ church, dates from about 1180, with early fourteenth- and fifteenth-century work. The west tower was rebuilt in 1787; porch and vestry are nineteenth-century. Walls are magnesian limestone ashlar under a Welsh slate roof. The church was listed Grade I on 16 December 1966 (list entry 1083427).

Interior fittings include a pulpit dated 1619, eight misericord stalls, reused screens of about 1531, and alabaster effigial tombs of the Hilton family (later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries). The nunnery earthworks around the church are a scheduled monument (1007750).

The legal parish is Swine with Ellerby, in the Diocese of York.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1083427](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1083427)
- [Wikipedia: Swine Priory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_Priory)