This 12th century church is largely unaltered since it was built. It consists of a nave and chancel under a continuous roof approximately forty feet long.
For over 900 years one man, the reigning Lord of the manor of Hilton, owned and controlled the lands and property within the parish of Hilton, and from the beginning of the 19th century he was also patron of the village church and provided the ‘living’ for the curate, whom he also appointed.
Not until 1955 after the death of Henry Arthur Shaw, the last owner of the manor of Hilton, did the farms, inns,cottages and smallholdings come into the hands of the people who lived in and worked on them. At this time the Estate was auctioned in separate Lots, and tenant farmers,inn-keepers and cottages had the opportunity to purchase the properties they rented.
Over the years as land has been sold for development, the village has changed dramatically from a small agricultural community which housed between 112 and 147 people in the nineteenth century, to a busy sought after residential development housing over 400 residents, whilst still maintaining its agricultural origins.
For many years Hilton retained its rural identity, as late as the nineteen-eighties cows were driven from a field behind the village and herded along the main road to milking sheds at the centre of the village, today both the milking sheds and farmhouse have been demolished and been replace by modern executive housing.
Extracts taken from A History of Hilton in Cleveland by kind permission of Mary Hicks MA.
This 12th century church is largely unaltered since it was built. It consists of a nave and chancel under a continuous roof approximately forty feet long.
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