 According to Killinghall historian Colin Waite, "It could well be that James used the same stone to build St Thomas's," and the "Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale Herald"'s 1880 article about the consecration said that it was local stone.James Simpson was the father of David Simpson, who was mayor of Harrogate four times, who built Harrogate's Grand Hotel (1903), and who developed Harrogate's Duchy Estate for the Duchy of Lancaster.The carpenter and joiner was William Bellerby of York.