It lends its name to St Mary's Hill (part of the old Great North Road) on which it stands, and which runs down to the river crossing opposite The George Hotel.

[1] The spire was saved from collapse following a recommendation by William Stukeley in 1741 that it should be repaired,[2] work which was eventually carried out in 1788 by Charles Haynes, using iron strapping.

In 1921, a rood was added atop the chancel screen in memory of those men of the parish who had died in the First World War.

The parish stands in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England and receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Richborough (currently Norman Banks).

Meticulous preparation was said to have gone into producing the window, including the making of a suit of armour for the St Michael figure from papier-mâché - which his assistant had to wear.

In The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, Nikolaus Pevsner and John Harris say of this window: "in a style derived from the Pre-Raphaelites but more hard edged and Impressionist".