St Andrew

The church building is the third to have been built on this site. The first was a Norman church, rebuilt in the reign of Charles II with little space; the nave could only accommodate 10 pews, 5 pews down each side of the aisle and one pew in front of the font. These pews were allocated to 25 families in 1717, who had to pay an annual rent.

The church was restored and enlarged between 1845-1846, with room to seat 300, three bells. The cost was met by William Rutson Esq of Newby Wiske Hall, £6000 with a further £1000 for additional expenses, as a memorial to his father, an eminent Liverpool merchant. The architect was Anthony Salvin.

The wheel window and two arched windows below originally contained plain glass. The fine stained glass was placed there on the 10th December 1907 in memory of John Rutson. The ancient font in the north aisle has been damaged and received some restoration around the base. It is plain with no inscriptions on it. 

The diamond shaped hatchment belonged to Charlotte, the first wife of Captain John George Boss RN who lived at Otterington Hall. Her husband was a member of the first reformed parliament, for the borough of Northallerton. Memorials on the walls of the north aisle are to various members of the Rutson family of Newby Wiske. The Hood family of Whigg Hall have a memorial plaque on the south west wall of the nave.

The choir and the congregation were accompanied by a cello until 1899, when there is reference to an organist. The donor of the organ is a mystery. The wooden eagle was used for sermons and readings etc; the Bible is now read from the stone platform facing the pulpit.

The lychgate, traditionally a place where corpse bearers carried the body of a deceased person and laid it on a communal bier, was built in 1986 and paid for by Miss M Furness as a memorial to her brother Sir Stephen Furness, who lived at Otterington hall and worshipped at this church.