In medieval times, the approach to the village of Hornby from Richmond, was from the west. This afforded a good view of the church's tower set against the
castle on the slight hill beyond. The village of Hornby is clustered around the church and the castle is set higher with a commanding view of the former Hornby Castle Park. The church, its earnings and one carucate of land, were bestowed upon
St Mary's Abbey in
York, in the early part of the 12th century by
Stephen,
Earl of Richmond (along with other lands and the churches at
Burneston and
Middleton Tyas). Soon afterwards,
Archbishop Walter Grey gave it to the common fund of the church of York. Because of the distance from York, it became a
peculier (like
Middleham or
Masham) only without a court of its own to decide on matters. The oldest part of the church is the tower, which dates back to 1080. Its architecture is mostly Norman, though the very top of the tower is Perpendicular in nature, so was added between the 14th and 16th centuries. Most of the main structure of the building was added in the Norman period, though the chantry dates from the 1330s and a contract from 1410 exists for the building of the south arcade. The church was reconstructed by John Conyers in 1413 and has also had work done in the 15th and 16th centuries. It refurbished a second time in 1877 at the behest of Fanny Georgiana, who was the Duchess of Leeds and resided at the adjacent
Hornby Castle. Whilst the church was the property of various mother churches in York, the surrounding land was owned by the Duchy of Leeds. In the 1840s, the Duchess of Leeds,
Louisa Catherine Hervey-Bathurst, created a Catholic church in one of the houses in the village. The clerestory is furnished with Perpendicular square headed windows, whilst the north aisle has Decorated windows. There are some effigies in the chancel and the aisles which date back to the 14th century, though the font, which dates to the 1780s and was a gift of a lady of
Holderness, was described as being
modern in 1869. The parish of Hornby and Holderness in
East Riding of Yorkshire have a history; several of the families established in the village after the Conquest came from Holderness (the Daltons, the De La Mare's and the St Quintin's). This led to the chapel in the church being labelled
The Holderness Chapel on account of the effigies and memorials contained within. The church was grade I listed in 1969. ==Parish details==