On the western escarpment
Faceby
A small, leafy village below Carlton Moor, with Norman stone in its church and serious walking on the surrounding escarpment.
- Best for
- Escarpment walks and layered local history
- Give it
- A planned half day, or longer with a moor walk
- Don't miss
- The reset 12th-century doorway in St Mary Magdalene's
The Fox verdict
A quiet village on the western escarpment
Faceby works best as a small, history-rich starting point for the western escarpment rather than as a full-service destination.
Begin with the medieval stone preserved inside the Victorian church, then choose between a sustained Cleveland Way outing and the shorter Lord Stones loop. Whorlton Castle, Stokesley and Mount Grace Priory make useful, distinct additions nearby.
Where to go
Places in Faceby
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesSt Mary Magdalene's Church
A Victorian church incorporating a nearly complete 12th-century doorway, further Norman stonework and a font made from a medieval column; its Robert Thompson oak furniture carries the maker's mouse trademark.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- above the houses at the green-lane crossing
- Access
- No regular opening hours were established in the research; check the church's official page before relying on interior access.
Whorlton Castle and deserted medieval village
A scheduled landscape where Norman defences became a 14th-century tower house, alongside garden earthworks, ponds, field remains, village platforms and the ruined Holy Cross church.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour
- Locality
- at Whorlton, on the Faceby walking circuit
- Access
- Treat the Historic England listing as the identity and significance source; confirm practical access independently before visiting.
Stokesley High Street
The practical supply stop for a Faceby visit, with shops gathered on and around the High Street and visitor parking described by the town council.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour
- Locality
- in nearby Stokesley
Walks & outdoors
2 placesCleveland Way: Osmotherley to Clay Bank
Use Faceby to reach the Cleveland Way landscape of Live Moor, Cringle Moor and Cold Moor, with broad views and traces of the area's extractive past on the official long-distance route.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 3 hours for a selected out-and-back stretch
- Locality
- on the western escarpment above Faceby
- Access
- Choose a section suited to conditions and ability; parking at the Faceby end is very limited.
Lord Stones short walk
A 2.75-mile alternative to a long Cleveland Way day, climbing to wide views across the Cleveland plain towards Roseberry Topping and Cook's Monument.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- at Lord Stones and Carlton Bank
- Access
- The official route is graded moderate and includes a stiff stepped climb onto Cringle Moor.
History & heritage
1 placeMount Grace Priory
The remains of a monastery founded in 1398 sit beside a later mansion and Arts and Crafts terraced gardens; the visitor offer also includes a family trail and café.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- on the western escarpment near the A19 and A172
- Access
- Check the official visitor page for current admission, opening and facilities before travel.
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Three ways to explore Faceby
Signature outings
Find the Norman doorway
Look closely at the reset chevron moulding, medieval font and Robert Thompson mouse inside St Mary Magdalene's.
Follow the Cleveland Way
Choose an out-and-back stretch above Faceby for moorland, escarpment views and the sequence of Live, Cringle and Cold moors.
Explore Mount Grace
Pair the monastery ruins with the later mansion, Arts and Crafts terraces and family trail.
The village story
Faceby Village Guide
A small escarpment village where pub life, medieval stone, moorland routes and migration stories sit unusually close together.
The village table and the shopping run
The Sutton Arms keeps a real fire and is the only pub in the village. Diners come for the steaks — one recent visitor described 12oz and 16oz cuts served with homemade chips, onion rings and Diane sauce — and Sunday lunch is a regular favourite. Recent favourites also include chicken Parmesan, surf and turf and sticky toffee pudding, with a children's menu and outside seating also listed. There is cask ale and two changing beers, neither with a settled name. One May 2025 visitor left it at "It's a little gem. The staff were so friendly & helpful, & the food was amazing." The bus stop stands about twenty metres from the door, and there is parking, which in Faceby matters more than it sounds.
For groceries you go to Stokesley, about six kilometres north-east, where the shops gather around the High Street. Faceby itself has no shop, bakery, butcher, deli or farm shop today, though it did once: Faceby House, dated 1716 on its door lintel, was formerly listed as the home of Beusley, a general dealer.
Norman stone beneath the moor
St Mary Magdalene's stands above the houses where two green lanes cross, one coming off the moor and one from Whorlton, with the long view running south to the woods on Whorl Hill. The church you see is Victorian, built in 1874-75, but it is full of older stone. When the rebuild was planned, the Revd George Prowde raised £1,000 and insisted that the Norman arch and the old masonry be kept. So a nearly complete 12th-century doorway — roll, hollow and chevron mouldings, framed by St Andrew's crosses — was reset into the new walls, more Norman voussoirs went into the chancel arch, and the font was cut from a medieval column with a spurred base. Temple Moore extended the chancel in 1911. The oak furniture is by Robert Thompson of Kilburn; look for the small carved mouse he signed his work with. The organ came from a country house near Wolverhampton and was restored in 2005.
The village is a single line of houses on the western escarpment of the moors, the older cottages east of Bank Lane and the newer ones west, most of them set back in large plots behind low hedges. Brick and pantile dominate, with some white render, the pub included. In summer the approach is leafy and the place feels cut off. Carlton Moor rises behind it to the east, close to a thousand feet within a mile and a half of the village.
Climbing out, getting in
That climb is the main reason walkers come. The Cleveland Way drops to cross Scugdale just over a mile away, and from Faceby you can join it for the escarpment section over Live Moor, Cringle Moor and Cold Moor, or take the quieter lanes, a less strenuous alternative with escarpment views. A 6.4-mile circuit links the village with Swainby and returns past Whorlton's church and castle, a scheduled site that stayed in use right through the medieval period, its Norman defences rebuilt as a 14th-century tower house. Parking at the Faceby end is very limited, so an early start helps.
The nearest railway station is Battersby, a little over six miles away as the crow flies, on the unstaffed Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. The A172 runs a kilometre to the north, and the 80 and 89 buses call through on their way between Northallerton and Stokesley.
Four households, migration and charity
The Domesday surveyors, who spelt the name Feizbi, recorded four households here in 1086. By the 1851 census it held 32 houses and 140 people — a publican, a blacksmith, a shoemaker, tailors, a butcher, a carrier, a miller and three Stanger brothers who made carts. Within two years a Latter-day Saint branch had formed, and in February 1855 a large party, mostly from the Stanger and Etherington families, left the village for America and eventually Utah.
From 1634 the church ran the Lazenby Charity, handing out food and fuel to the poor of the parish. Bread and coal were still being given out in the village into the 1970s.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- St Mary Magdalene's Church — achurchnearyou.com national body or asset manager
- Cleveland Way: Osmotherley to Clay Bank — gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Lord Stones short walk — outdooractive.com other published source
- Whorlton Castle and deserted medieval village — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Stokesley High Street — stokesleytowncouncil.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Mount Grace Priory — english-heritage.org.uk national body or asset manager