St Hilda's Church, Ellerburn

Ellerburn is a hamlet rather than a village: a handful of houses, a lane, and a church in a small valley with Thornton Beck flowing just to the south of the church grounds. It sits about a mile north of Thornton-le-Dale and belongs to the same ecclesiastical parish, Thornton Dale with Ellerburn and Wilton, within the Benefice of Moor and Dale, the Deanery of Northern Ryedale, the Archdeaconry of Cleveland and the Diocese of York. Of the churches in that benefice, St Hilda's is described as the mother church, being by far the oldest.

Most people arrive here on foot or by bike from the village, because the walk out is one of the loveliest short walks in the area. What they find at the end of it is a building of real national importance, and a conservation story that is far more interesting, and far more generous on both sides, than the headlines suggested at the time.

The foundations of St Hilda's are thought to be early Saxon. The structure standing above ground dates from the 11th century, and set into its walls are Saxon fragments and relics that point to something earlier still, possibly as late as the 10th century. Ninth and tenth century carved stones are incorporated in the fabric, which is the clearest physical evidence that a church stood on this spot long before the walls you can touch today were raised.

The building was extensively restored in the 15th century, and again in a campaign of work carried out between 1904 and 1905. During that restoration the architect formed the theory that the chancel arch had once carried a fresco of the Last Judgement, a reminder that a church interior of this age was originally a far more colourful place than bare stone suggests. A new lychgate followed in 1909.

Historic England lists the Church of St Hilda at Grade II*, list entry 1074194, designated on 5 February 1986. Grade II* is the middle of the three listing grades and marks a building of more than special interest, which puts St Hilda's among the more significant buildings in this part of Ryedale. The full designation record is public: Historic England list entry 1074194.

St Hilda's reached the national press in 2004, and again in 2011, because of the bat colonies roosting in its roof space. The church is home to a large and important breeding population of Natterer's bats, together with at least three other bat species. That matters ecologically as well as legally: bat numbers in Britain fell severely during the twentieth century, and all British bat species are protected under British law, which makes it an offence to harm them or to damage or obstruct a roost without a licence.

Churches are, from a bat's point of view, close to ideal. Thick walls hold a steady temperature, roof voids are undisturbed for most of the week, and buildings of this age offer the sort of crevices that modern construction does not. A colony of this size in a building of this size, however, produces a quantity of droppings and urine that a small congregation cannot simply mop up each Sunday.

In August 2011 services inside the church were suspended, after around a thousand years of almost uninterrupted worship on the site. Walls, floors and the altar were all affected. The congregation, rather than give up the year's rhythm, held their harvest festival outdoors. It is worth being plain about what that means for a rural congregation: the building is not a venue, it is the reason the community gathers where it does.

The best way to see Ellerburn is to leave the car in Thornton-le-Dale and go out on foot or by bike. The beckside and woodland route north from the village is described on the Ellerburn circular walk page, with the wider set of village routes on walks from Thornton-le-Dale. Riders pass the hamlet on the way up towards Dalby Forest; the village-end practicalities, parking, hire and repairs, are on the cycling page, and parking in the village itself is covered under parking.

Please treat it as what it is: a working church in a very quiet hamlet, with a handful of homes and narrow lanes with almost no space to leave a vehicle. Keep voices low near the churchyard, keep dogs on leads, close gates, and remember that services, funerals and private grief happen here. Nothing about a visit needs to announce itself.

This guide does not publish service times or opening hours for St Hilda's, because they cannot be verified here and stale information is worse than none. For current services and access, check A Church Near You (the Church of England's own directory) or the Benefice of Moor and Dale.

If you are making a half-day of it, the tea room at Ellerburn and the village's cafés and pubs are described on eating and drinking, and the wider picture of the parish and its history is on the village page.