New Curate, Mark Poole, to join the Benefice
Mark Poole (seated on the left)
Hello! My name is Mark Poole, and I am very excited to be coming to the benefice of East Rural York to serve as your curate in July this year! I am married to Emma and we have two grown up children. Our eldest, James, is a music graduate from Durham and works for John Lewis in London. Our daughter, Hannah, has just completed a postgraduate in Social Work and is now practising in York. She has returned to live with us until her wedding to George at the end of November this year.
Emma and I met at Westminster College, a teacher training college in Oxford back in the late 80s (I am originally from Lancashire! Sorry!) and we returned to marry and live in Emma’s home town of Malton in 1991, where we have lived ever since. I have enjoyed a twenty-year career in primary school teaching and was Headteacher for twelve of those years in three schools as well as an Adviser for North Yorkshire Education Authority. Following early retirement in 2010, I trained as a chef and worked in a tearoom before starting work at Scarborough Hospital in 2013 as a Nursing Assistant on an acute medical ward caring for the elderly. Since 2015 I have worked for Adult Speech and Language Therapy at the hospital, reducing my hours to part-time when I finally faced up to the calling to the priesthood which I had been ‘running away’ from since I was sixteen! I started training at St Hild College in Mirfield in September 2017 and it has been an absolute privilege and blessing to engage in studying and formation over the last three years. We worship at St Peter’s church in Norton and very much enjoyed being part of the family there.
I love cooking and baking and being in the outdoors with Emma and our two little dogs, Mabel, a chocolate cockapoo and Harper a mixture of all sorts rescued from Romania. We love relaxing with friends, eating and enjoying a glass of something nice! We also love retreats in our Motorhome, especially on Mull and Iona.
Emma and I are really looking forward to getting to know you and the communities of Holtby, Warthill, Stockton on the Forest and Dunnington. I feel very privileged to be working with, and supporting your Rector, Nick, in the benefice and I am sure I am going to learn a lot from him and from you as we serve our Lord together.