Parish of Whorlton (Swainby, Whorlton, and Potto)

Holy Cross, Whorlton

The old church of the Holy Cross in Whorlton is in fact a partial ruin, listed grade 1. It contains an effigy of a knight, which commemorates the second Lord of Whorlton Castle, Sir Nicholas de Maynell (Meinell) who died in 1322. The church is surrounded by the burial ground (churchyard) containing many ancient graves and monuments.

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Holy Cross Old Church

Castle Bank

Whorlton

Swainby, DL6 3HT

To find this church, please click on the address above for a map.

St. Mary’s, Potto

Part of the Benefice of Whorlton, the first Anglican church building in Potto was opened on 30th June 1893, largely due to the efforts of the Revd. John Cowley Fowler, Vicar of Whorlton from 1890 until his death in 1916 and author of “The Ancient Saxon Parish of Whorlton in Cleveland”. This building, a comfortable and surprisingly commodious ‘Mission Room’, was built in wood materials and served the community well until an electrical fault caused a spectacular fire which totally demolished it on 7th September 1936.

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To find this church, please click on the address above for a map.

Holy Cross, Swainby

Part of the larger Benefice of Whorlton, the Parish of Whorlton can be traced back to the 12th Century at least, as the ruins of the old Norman Church on the site of the original village of Whorlton contain evidence of several earlier buildings. By the middle of the 19th Century, that church had fallen into disrepair and – because by that time it was considered to be situated too far from the community it served – it was decided to build a new Parish Church in Swainby.