[3] In 1794, Fr Thomas Austin Lawson OSB from Downside Abbey came to Richmond to start a mission to the local Catholics of the area.

He asked the architect George Goldie to design a church that would accommodate the community.

[2] In 1961, a year before the Second Vatican Council, the Jesuits handed over the administration of the parish to the Diocese of Middlesbrough.

At St Mary's Wycliffe, within the parish, there is a Sunday Mass at 11:30, and weekday communion services at 09:00 from Monday to Friday, with one at 10:00 on Saturdays.

The parish priest also serves St Mary's Church in Wycliffe, County Durham, situated close to Barnard Castle and Hutton Magna.