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":
Bram Stoker "The Snake's Pass" in 1890 and "Dracula" in 1897. During this period, Stoker was part of the literary staff of "The Daily Telegraph" in London, and he wrote other fiction, including the horror novels "The Lady of the Shroud" (1909) and "The Lair of the White Worm" (1911). He published his "Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving" in 1906, after Irving's death, which proved successful, and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Before writing "Dracula", Stoker met Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian writer and traveller. Dracula likely emerged from Vámbéry's dark stories of the Carpathian mountains. Stoker then spent several