Church Of St Hilda

The Church of St. Hilda is a church built between 1823 and 1825, with alterations likely occurring around 1910. It was designed by Will Hurst for James Wilson of Sneaton Castle. The church is constructed from sandstone, with herring bone tooling to the plinth, sandstone ashlar dressings, and slate roofs, including stone-flagged roof on the tower.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with a south porch, and a chancel. The two-stage tower has shouldered angle buttresses and narrow slit windows in the lower stage. The upper stage features two-light windows set beneath pointed hood-moulds and uncarved lozenge panels. A set-back octagonal lantern with louvred lancets and lucarnes sits above, topped by a squat octagonal spire and wrought iron cross. The gabled porch has diagonal buttresses rising to crocketed pinnacles and contains a pointed-arched opening above which is a carved panel displaying the Wilson family arms. A carved rectangular panel on the nave wall above the porch reads: "THIS CHURCH WAS ERECTED BY JAMES WILSON ESQ LORD OF THE MANOR 1823.” The nave windows are three-light with partly-renewed tracery and pointed hood-moulds, with buttressing and a raised eaves band. The north side of the nave mirrors the south, without a doorway. The chancel has a cruciform opening on each side and angle buttresses to the east, with one buttress pinnacled. The east end features a three-light window with a pointed hood-mould and roll-moulded gable. All windows are in the Perpendicular style.

Inside, a narrow, pointed, chamfered arch leads to the tower, and a stilted, pointed chancel arch has a timber screen. A square font, restored in 1845, retains original scalloped capitals on the angle shafts. The tower displays a cartouche of the Wilson arms and an 1824 hatchment hangs over the door.

Monuments on the south wall of the nave commemorate James Wilson (died 1830) with Perpendicular-style tracery and niches with crocketed canopies, executed by H.Hopper. A dated monument on the north wall of the chancel, created by T. Bedford of London in 1836, commemorates members of the Chapman family and includes a weeping figure in low relief draped over an urn.

The east window contains stained glass from 1927, made by Kemp and Tower.

The church occupies a prominent hilltop location, dominating the surrounding landscape.