Even with the advent of the collieries at Blackhall, Hesleden, and Horden, for a great deal of time, St. Mary's was the only local Anglican church, and with Castle Eden, the only local cemetery, so despite the village's dwindling population, the church had survived.
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Despite the disappearance of the church, the parish lives on in name, and following the reorganisation of parishes in the 1980s, now includes the churches of St. James at Castle Eden, St. Andrews at Blackhall, St Marys in Horden, St. Cuthbert in Peterlee, and the Church at Hesleden.
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The Church of St. Marys, at Monk Hesleden can be dated as far back as the 13th century, though by the time it was photographed in the 19th century, it had been greatly altered, giving the impression, externally at least, of a much later structure, almost Georgian in style.