St Mary’s Hambleton was built as a ‘chapel of ease’ which means a church other than the parish church which was at that time St Wilfred’s of Brayton. Although permission was given for a Church to be built the residents of Hambleton numbered around 530 and were unlikely to be able to raise the funds to build the Church themselves. However, towards the end of 1880 Mr. W. T. Smith started the church building fund with a donation of £1,000. He also purchased the land, opposite the then school, from Lord Londsborough. The signatures on conveyance for the land on included Lord Londsborough and Mary Ann Smith.
The Church was designed by Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson who designed many churches including Beverley Minster and Truro Cathedral. English Heritage consider St Mary’s to be one of his better ‘cheap churches’. The Church is included an Historic England document entitled in The church and chapel interiors of John Loughborough Pearson: A selective assessment of significance. In recognition of its significance on 21st June, 2021 the Church was awarded Grade II listing status. The number of parishioners the church should accommodate varies in the historic documents from 198 to 214.
The foundation stone was laid by Mrs Mervyn D. Jefferson during a special service at 3 o’clock on Thursday 4th August, 1881. The service was followed by a tea in a tent at Hambleton House provided by many ladies from the village and the wife of the Vicar of Brayton Mrs Crossthwaite. The building contractor was John Morgan of Campsell, near Doncaster. Unusually the church lies north-east to southwest rather than east to west, no doubt influenced by the shape of the plot of land on which it is built.
The Church cost £2,012 1s 9d to build and the public subscriptions provided the majority of the money but some grants were obtained, York Diocesan Church Extension Society £113 and £100 from Incorporated Church Building Society. The names included on the petition sent to the diocese requesting the consecration of St Mary’s included the vicar of Brayton, Rev. Crossthwaite, W. T. Smith of Hambleton House, George Braithwaite and Harris Anson of Greystones. The Consecrated took place at 1045 on Saturday 22nd April, 1882 by the Archbishop of York. This event was reported in several local papers including the Yorkshire Press & Leeds Intelligencer. During the consecration service the Archbishop mention that, despite people’s generosity there was still a debt of over £200 to be paid. After the Consecration the clergy and approximately 100 ladies and gentlemen lunched in the school room. The pulpit, lectern communion and credence tables were of old oak, some of which had been donated by St Wilfred’s Church at Brayton which had been refurbished 4 years earlier. The three light east stained-glass windows were of the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion and the Ascension by Ward & Hughes of London, the cost of which was deferred by Mrs. Smith.
In 1914 left the parish of Brayton and formed the new parish of Gateforth and Hambleton.