St marys in the centre between the two beaches

St Mary's Church is a parish church in

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

, in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. It stands high above the old town, just below

Scarborough Castle Scarborough Castle is a former Medieval Period, medieval royal fortress situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea and Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. The site of the castle, encompassing the Ir ...

History

The church was built in the 12th century. It was once a large church with two towers (west and central), but was largely destroyed during the siege of Scarborough Castle in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. The church was rebuilt in the late 17th century and restored in the mid 19th century. The building now has a square tower at the east end, replacing the former central tower, and a series of stone vaulted side chapels on the south side. The internal walls are almost covered with late 18th century and early 19th-century wall monuments, including one by Roubiliac to

Elizabeth Craven Elizabeth, Princess Berkeley (born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; 17 December 1750 – 13 January 1828), sometimes unofficially styled Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, previously Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven of Hamstead Marshall, was an author ...

. The chancel was rebuilt c.1450 and subsequently destroyed in the Civil War, with some remains on the east end. During the Civil War, the churchyard was used as a base to fire cannons at the castle, with the castle returning fire. The tower collapsed in 1645 and was rebuilt in 1670. The church was heavily restored in the 19th century and is now about half the size it once was.

Graveyard

The church has a large graveyard, with tombs mainly of the 18th and 19th centuries. A much-visited grave is that of

Anne Brontë Anne Brontë (, commonly ; 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was an English novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family. Anne Brontë was the daughter of Maria ( Branwell) and Patrick Brontë, a poor Irish clergyman ...

, who died in Scarborough in 1849. Anne's sister Charlotte commissioned a stone to be placed over her grave, with the simple inscription "Here lie the remains of Anne Brontë, daughter of the Revd P. Brontë, Incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire. She died Aged 28 May 28th 1849". When Charlotte visited the grave three years later, she discovered multiple errors on the headstone, and thus it was refaced. However, Anne's age at death was still written as 28 when, in fact, she was 29 when she died. In 2011, the correction was finally made when a new inscribed plinth was laid by the Brontë Society in front of the eroded headstone.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Scarborough Scarborough, St Mary Scarborough, St Mary Buildings and structures in Scarborough, North Yorkshire