This church was built in 1146 - by the Cistercian monks who, thirty one years later, went on to build Byland Abbey.
At this time they were temporarily based at Tylas, a mile or so up river from Rievaulx. In the mid-1130s they'd been driven from their house at Calder in Cumbria by marauding Scots. And then they had wandered homeless across the country, for a year, with all their worldly goods piled high on a single wagon, pulled by eight oxen; looking for a patron. Until, at last, they struck lucky when the good lady Gundreda, of the great de Mowbray family in Thirsk, took pity on them, and gave them land - first at the bottom of Sutton Bank, then at Tylas.

The de Mowbrays' steward, Hugh de Malebisse, had a mansion here: the bumps in the field behind the house opposite are probably its remains. And the church was built for him and his retainers, so that they wouldn't any longer have to trek across the wild ravine to the church at Old Byland.
Features
The basic shape of the building is unchanged. The font came from Old Byland church in 1146, and has been used for the baptisms of some 30 generations of villagers. Behind the 16th century altar is the stone original: you can still see the little crosses in the corners. This is a great rarity, since stone altars were outlawed at the time of the Reformation.

The two side arches in the wall, dividing the chancel and sanctuary from the nave, may well have been used as side altars where the priests using them would look through the "squints" and watch the priest (perhaps the abbot) at the main altar so that all could act in unison.

In the north wall of the chancel there is a small low window through which it is possible that people suffering from leprosy, or other diseases - standing outside - were allowed to receive communion, or absolution for their sins. Further along the wall, by the altar, is a mysterious pillared sink. We don't know what it was used for. It may well have been brought here from Byland or Rievaulx in the late 1530s, after the dissolution of the monasteries.

Just over the churchyard wall, by the road, there is also the stone base of a later medieval wayside cross; originally one of a series along this road.