Egton (St. Hilda)
The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £120; patron and appropriator, the Archbishop of York, whose tithes have been commuted for £175. The church, which is situated about half a mile from the village, is said to have been consecrated by the Bishop of Damascus in 1349; but it is evidently of much earlier foundation, and, from the style of the doorway and the south aisle, which are of Norman character, must have been built soon after the Conquest. A second church, dedicated to St. Matthew, has been recently erected. There is a place of worship for Independents in the village; also a Roman Catholic chapel at Egton-Bridge. A fine spring here, called Cold Kell well, which is much resorted to for strengthening weakly children, is supposed to have been connected with an ancient baptistry, of which the remains of the bath and the steps leading into it are in good preservation. A priory was founded about the year 1200, by Johanna, wife of Robert de Turnham, who endowed it with lands in the parish, for the support of monks from the monastery of Grosmont, in Normandy: the priory was situated on the north bank of the Esk, in a beautifully sequestered spot now forming part of the line of the Whitby and Pickering railway; and at present, part of an old tomb, and a few sculptured stones, are the only remains of the establishment. When clearing some ground on the farm of Julian Park, a few years since, the foundations were discovered of an extensive range of buildings supposed to have been the baronial seat of the lords de Mauley.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.