When the church was built in the late 19th century, Beckwithshaw was a little hamlet, about two and a half miles from Harrogate, and its ecclesiastical district had to be carved from Pannal parish.

"The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 1886[5] However, in January and February 1885 there had been an outbreak of scarlet fever, and the school was closed for at least six weeks.

Dr Henry Williams and his wife lived at Moor Park House, built in 1859 in Beckwithshaw, and acquired by them in 1882.

[7] The household and estate, expanded in 1882, employed many local people until the late 1970s when Harrison Developments of Leeds bought the buildings and converted them into flats.

[5][9] Mrs Williams insisted that there should be no graveyard at the church site, and a contemporary local tendency to fear of the subject may have some bearing on this decision.

Arabella Elizabeth Tetley, a Beckwithshaw schoolmaster's wife, died of puerperal fever at age 23 years and was buried at Woodhouse Cemetery on Friday 17 April 1888.

[10] However gravedigger Fred Posey thought he saw "an upheaval of the earth which he had placed upon the coffin and heard a creak which led him to believe that the buried woman was alive and trying to wrench the lid away."

His listed works include at least fifteen other buildings, mostly Anglican, Neo-Gothic, Arts and Crafts churches within West Yorkshire.

[7] The church was completed in 1886 and it was dedicated and consecrated by Mrs Williams' uncle, The Bishop of Ripon, at Michaelmas, Thursday 29 September.

(On the afternoon of the same day, the bishop consecrated another church also dedicated to St Michael and All Angels at Cottingley, near Bingley.

Canon William Winter Gibbon, MA, vicar of Christ Church, High Harrogate, Rev.

By this time Mr and Mrs Henry Williams of Moor Park had died, but in the intervening years since funding the building and endowing the vicar's living, they had given a vicarage, the church furnishings, and the village institute.

[7][29] It was described by the York Herald as a "substantial structure, well furnished in the interior, and in every respect suitable as a parish church.

"[5] The building is in pristine condition and remains exactly as it was built and furnished on the day of its consecration in 1886, except for a missing statue described as a "group of St Michael overcoming the Dragon, placed between the west windows of the nave.

They are hung thus: "each bell hangs from its original wooden headstock though a restoration has seen the fitting of independent crown staples and ball bearings.

"[37][38] The reality in the bell-chamber is a very small and roughly-finished room, only partially protected from gales by louvred, unglazed windows on all sides.

[5][40] At the time of consecration in 1886, there was a carved statue "placed between the west windows of the nave," described as a "group of St Michael overcoming the Dragon.

The lean-to is comfortably blended into the exterior design, and the organ fits neatly into the arch, flush with the wall and sitting close enough to the choir stalls to be used by the choirmaster in rehearsals.

"York Herald, 24 December 1887[42][43] The Bishop of Ripon returned for the organ's opening day, along with the church's vicar Rev.

[44] When the window tracery and the carving of the reredos, pulpit and font were created in 1889, they were intended to imitate the style of the mid 14th century in keeping with the Gothic Revival movement.

[5] The east window, installed in 1886, depicts St Michael and all Angels, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi in stained glass, drawn and painted by Charles Eamer Kempe.

[7] On Sunday 26 June 1892, five new stained glass windows, also by Kempe, were dedicated at a special service with a choir and large congregation.

Standing opposite to St John is an angel with a golden reed with which to measure the city and the gates and the walls thereof.

In the other window on the south side St John is represented as falling at the feet of the angel on the bank of the River of Life, the tree being in the midst.

The first delineates the angel standing outside the city wall and with a sickle cutting a cluster of grapes to cast into the winepress of the Wrath of God.

The first light of the centre window is an illustration of Revelations VIII.13 which describes the Apostle's vision of an angel flying through the midst of heaven, uttering a solemn proclamation of coming woes.

"Pannal Parish Magazine, August 1892[7][47]Past clergy are listed on a memorial board at the back of the church.

Charles Farrar Forster (1848–1894), a man fragile of body who had suffered heart disease and excruciating pain for some years, and who had transferred his service from the busy St Andrew's in Huddersfield to this quiet parish in the hope of improving his failing health.

He was concerned with the welfare of the church, he was a member of the Pannal School Board, and was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Weathering has now hidden the marble pattern, except for the unweathered section on the pedestal, where the cross has been removed by the council for safety reasons.