St Mary's Church, Whitby arch is a Jacobean pew. There is a monument to Sir Richard Cholmley who died in 1631. Two significant land slips due to broken drainage and torrential rain, the first occurring in November 2012, have placed the churchyard, and properties below the cliff, in significant jeopardy. Whitby town councillor Steve Smith stated the church was in no danger, having been built on solid rock. Human remains have fallen onto the street below, and pathways on the cliff-side of the church have been closed. Bram Stoker used St Mary's Church graveyard as the setting for a scene in his novel, "Dracula":
Dracula Lives! comic "The Tomb of Dracula", the continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time, however, the stories in "Dracula Lives!" were standalone Dracula tales by various creative teams. Later issues of "Dracula Lives!" featured a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano. Copyrighted as simply "Dracula Lives!" and commonly known by its trademarked cover title, "Dracula Lives!", the magazine ran 13 issues from 1973 to 1975. With sister titles including "Monsters Unleashed", "Tales of the Zombie" and "Vampire Tales", it was