The first question most people ask about the church of St Paul is "Why is it dedicated to St Paul when the village is called Aldbrough St John?". The reason is the somewhat prosaic one that the Post Office needed a means of distinguishing between our Aldbrough and Aldborough near Boroughbridge and Aldbrough in the East Riding. At that time the village was within the ancient parish of St John at Stanwick and so the name of the then parish church was added. St Paul's only became the parish church in 1990 when St John's was declared redundant.
The church was built in 1890 at a cost of £2000 paid by Eleanor, the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland who lived in Stanwick Hall. It was intended as a chapel of ease to save the villagers the walk across the fields to Stanwick. The building work was done by local craftsmen and the stone, from a nearby quarry, was carried by local farmers as their contribution to the project.
The design is very simple, the most conspicuous feature being the barrel vaulted ceiling with stencilled decorations and the words of the Te Deum along the frieze. The plain wooden pews and choir-stalls are original but the electronic organ is, of course, fairly recent.
Many of the artefacts in the church were made and/or donated by parishioners.
If you visit St Paul's there is a more detailed information leaflet available.