History

The current Church of St Cuthbert was almost entirely rebuilt in 1875 but the site has been home to churches for over 1000 years.

Stones and fragments from earlier Churches are incorporated in the walls or preserved inside the Church, some are of pre-Conquest date.

It is known that there was a church and a Parish Priest on this spot at the time of the Doomsday survey and there is some evidence to suggest that there was a church here in Saxon times. It is said that St Cuthbert’s body rested here during the movement of his body about Northumbria in the 9th Century. See St Cuthbert’s Final Journey and The Journey of Saint Cuthbert’s Coffin and this paper.

The tower and spire, housing the ring of 8 bells, was only completed in 1907. The cost from a bequest by Elizabeth Caroline Brown. The north porch is in memory of John Hymers, D.D., who died in 1887.

The registers begin in 1599.

List of Known Vicars

From Graves “Cleveland” p442

1310 Stephen de Parum called Uel Glottes. Roger … (died)
1349 Walter de Wyrkesdall (resigned)
1351 John Kyng
1361 John Barker
1361 John de Stokesley (exchanged for the vicarage of Marton)
1387 John de Kirkham
1387 John de Karleolo(f) (resigned)
1391 John de Wath (died)
1402 Thomas Storr(Starr) (resigned)
1416 Thomas Todd (resigned)
1434 Cuthbert de Osmunderly vel Cunton (Conton)
1434 John de Stitname (resigned)
1475 Richard Elmedon (died)
1507 Richard Bayley (Bayly) (resigned)
1507 Thomas Matthew (died)
1546 Christopher Wylde
1554 Olyver Watson
1582 Richard Stapylton (resigned)
1582 William Lawson (died)
1635 Thomas Astell S.T.B.
1662 John Carter (died)
1673 Thomas Smallwood BA
1676 William Perkins
1719 Thomas Sharpe
1719 Joseph Milner
1720 William Consett
1762 John Tanch MA (died)
1814 William Tiffin
1816 James Thomson (died)
1837 Thomas Irvin (died)

Other Sources
1883 William Robt. Sharrock MA
1892 John George Wood
1903 William Hale Savil
1905 James Cornelius Canning Kemm
1929 E. Flintoft Wood
1936 E.A. Budgen
1939 Lloyd Jacob
1940 Matthew Clare Callis B.A.
1941 Samuel Arnold Cawthorne M.A.
1941? John Hymas
1958 Henry Marshall
1974 Michael Wright
1981 Alan Bill
1992 R.A. Smailes (Tony)

Note: The two sections above are copied from an unsigned paper in church files and Vyvian Moyle added, based upon a statement in ‘The Story of Eston’ by Maurice E. Wilson published by A A Sotheran Ltd., Redcar (1972).

Removed ‘1868 Vyvian H. Moyle’ as he was Vicar of Eston when he was arrested and convicted of fraud in 1873 and jailed for 7 years. Thomas Irvin continued to be Vicar of Ormesby until his death in 1883.

2001 Robert Brown (retired) 2012
2014 Jennifer S Croft 2020

2024 Robert Opala