Revd Hare and the construction of the present church

Further down this page you will see a flyer which was written and published by the then Vicar of Goathland, Revd Ernest Hare, near the time that the present church was consecrated.  The flyer gives a good outline of the early history of the church in Goathland. Click here to go directly to it.

The young Ernest Hare had arrived in Goathland  seven years before the church began to be built. He had soon found that there was a desire in the village to replace the existing church, which dated back to 1821. The Duchy of Lancaster had offered a piece of land and financial support for rebuilding. By 1892 Ernest Hare had obtained promises of £800, a considerable sum in those days, and enough to start building the new church.

Most of the sum had been promised by Mr (later Sir) Malcolm D McEacharn who also offered to provide all the stone for building from his Mallyan Spout quarry. Mr McEacharn was a London shipbroker who married Ann Peirson of Thornhill, Goathland in 1878. Sadly, she died in childbirth eleven months later. There are plaques on the south wall of the nave dedicated to the memory of the couple, and to their child who died aged 11 in Australia, and was brought home to be buried at St Mary's.

In her booklet, The History of Goathland Church, local historian Alice Hollings completes the story as follows:
Mr W H Brierly of Messrs Domaine and Brierly, Architects, York produced plans, Messrs Barnes of Malton and Yearsley of Pickering were engaged as builders, and on July 5th 1894 the foundation stone was laid by Malcolm D McEacharn, Esq.

The photograph at right taken from the south, shows the new church being built beside the old. Notice the Georgian style of the old church. Over the next year, as it was dismantled, its stone would be used to build the tower of the new one.

Scroll down to read Revd Hare's flyer.