Main Street, West Stockwith, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN10 4HA

History

On 21st May, 1334 the Archbishop of York granted the inhabitants of West Stockwith leave to have masses celebrated in the newly built Chapel of Saint Mary the Blessed Virgin which stood on the site of the Aegir flats in Canal Lane. The permission was granted due to the condition of the roads which were flooded for part of the year, and the distance from Misterton, it is known that this chapel was still standing in 1559.

In his last will and testament, dated the 24th day of August, 1714, William Huntingdon, Shipwright, of West Stockwith, bequeathed the sum of L740 for the building of this fine Georgian Church, described as a Chapel of Ease, and 10 houses for the use of poor widows, all to be erected on the site of his former shipyard.

William Huntingdon died in 1714 and was buried at Misterton, his remains being re-interred in the white marble tomb housed to the left of the altar when the church at West Stockwith was finally completed in 1722.

In 1887 the church was restored by the Victorians, who in their zeal removed the beautiful oak double decker pulpit and box pews, the oak gallery situated at the rear of the church, and the very fine plaster mouldings and tablet containing the Ten Commandments, from above the altar.

From 1892 West Stockwith became a separate ecclesistical parish, with Saint Mary's as its parish church, until 1957 when a United Benefice between All Saints Church Misterton and St Mary the Blessed Virgin West Stockwith was created.

In 1963 the church was restored in an attempt to return once more, as far as possible, the original Georgian character of the building.

On the 23rd January 2000, a service of Inauguration was celebrated to mark the formation of a Local Ecumenical Partnership between the Anglicans and Methodists, and some of the Methodist Chapel's artefacts are now housed in the Church.