Saint Mary’s Church is a Norman Church and is thought to have been built between 1130 and 1155 AD. St. Mary’s Church ranks amongst the best examples of Norman Parish Churches in the Diocese of York. (Pevsner) There is a Tower, Nave and Chancel with an outstanding and unusual Tower staircase, a very ancient feature. The church was restored in 1856-1857 through the benefaction of Sir Tatton Sykes , an important and notable land owner of the time, by that great architect, John Loughborough Pearson. Other features of the restoration at about the same time were by that equally notable architect., George Edmund Street. Robert de Bruis founded Guisborough Priory in 1119. He gave Kirkburn to his new foundation and the church was probably built within the next 20 years. The Norman Chancel was partly rebuilt in 1818 and formed part of the 1856-1857 restoration of Sir Tatton Sykes. There are three ancient bells - there is a local legend that one of those bells, intended for and on route to the church at North Newbald was instead “taken over” by local villagers. The Church and its Tower, though Norman in origin, have perpendicular and early English influences. The nave is original Norman with flat buttresses,
