Sculcoates was an ancient parish (Church of England) centered around a small village in an agricultural area about a mile north of the old city of Kingston Upon Hull. The metropolis of Hull expanded rapidly during the 18th century into the southern parts of Sculcoates parish. In 1835, the area encompassed by Sculcoates parish, along with the village, was formally incorporated into the city of Kingston Upon Hull. A portion of the ancient Sculcoates parish was also used to create the Sculcoates St Paul parish for the Church of England in 1844.

The original Sculcoates parish church, St Marys, is mentioned as early as 1232. It was located at the center of the old village on the corner of modern Air Street and Bankside. The church building was demolished and rebuilt in 1760 and was extensively refurbished again in the early 1860s. St Marys was closed for a while after 1870 when All Saints Church was opened as the new Sculcoates parish church. However, St Mary reopened in 1872 and remained in use until 1916. This building was then demolished and a replacement St Marys Church was built a few blocks west at a new location on Sculcoates Lane. The modern Church of England parish, Sculcoates St Mary, is centered on this newer church building.

A Churchyard burial ground surrounded the original church building on Air Street and is now commonly known as the Air Street Cemetery. The Churchyard was formally closed to burials in 1855, but suffered from overcrowding prior to this. As a consequence, two additional burial grounds were consecrated to serve Sculcoates parish at various times in the 19th century. Sculcoates Sacristy Cemetery (aka Sculcoates Lane South Cemetery) was consecrated on 2 January 1818 and the Sculcoates Lane North Cemetery was opened in the 1890s. It is likely that most burials in Sculcoates parish registers from 1818 onwards would have taken place in these new burial grounds.

Some of the original headstones and burial monuments are still found within St Marys Churchyard. Many, however, have been lost to the ravages of time. Memorials from inside the original church building were physically moved to the new St Marys Church on Sculcoates Lane in 1916. The East Yorkshire Family History Society (Carnegie Heritage Centre, 342 Anlaby Road, Kingston upon Hull, HU3 6JA) has a listing of headstone and monument inscriptions for Sculcoates parish.

Registers from the ancient Sculcoates parish, including burials, date from 1538 and have been deposited in East Riding Archives (The Treasure House, Champney Road, Beverley HU17 9BQ). However, locating the correct parish register requires some knowledge about other churches and parishes formed as the population of this area increased during the 1800s. All Saints Church (located at Margaret Street & Beverley Road) was built in 1869 and operated until 1974 when the building was demolished. This church replaced St Marys as the Sculcoates parish church from 1869 onwards and the original Sculcoates parish records were transferred from St Marys to All Saints. St Marys Church registers occur separately in the Archives, but these only date from its reopening in 1872. Consequently, all burials in the separate St Marys Church register deposited in the Archives would have occurred in the Sculcoates Lane cemeteries or in non-parochial cemeteries operated by the city government. Burials in the St Mary Churchyard (dating from 1538 until its formal closure in 1855) will be found with the Sculcoates All Saints parish registers in the East Yorkshire Archives.

A transcript of the Sculcoates parish register (1538-1772) was prepared by M. Edward Ingram and published in 1959 by the Yorkshire Parish Register Society.