Our Church Wardens at St Mary the Virgin, Yarlington

Lesley Gillingham

Telephone:      01963 440090

Email:               lesleygillingham@yahoo.co.uk

 

Amenities and Activities

 

Churches services resumed on Easter Sunday and continue with Communion at 9.00am on the First Sunday of the month; Evensong at 6.30pm on the Third Sunday; and Sunday Worship at 11.00am on the Fourth Sunday.

History

St Mary’s Church stands in the centre of the village, where it stood with the manor house in medieval times.  For the manor of Yarlington is recorded in the Domesday Book.  It is also the source of the well known Yarlington Mill cider apple.  To the north open countryside reveals evidence of farming practice of the middle ages and to the south the Stag’s Head Inn beckons the weary pilgrim.  A Norman, or perhaps Saxon, arch at the base of the tower indicates that there was a church on the site, perhaps with this central tower, at the time of the Norman conquest.  Apart from the 15th century perpendicular tower, the church was almost entirely rebuilt in 1878 in what Pevsner describes as a ‘coarse geometrical’ style by J A Reeve.  This architectural style and the huge chancel are representative of the significant influence of the Cambridge Camden Society, later the Ecclesiological Society  founded in 1879, which wanted to restore Anglican churches to a Gothic style suited to Prayer Book services.  Work by J A Reeve can also been seen in St Mark’s Church, Salisbury and St Boniface College, Warminster.  Only the tower remains from the medieval church, though it may not be as it was in the original footprint of the building.

Notable features in the church and churchyard

Furnishings – perpendicular font, square with chamfered corners; one of five painted panels from the gallery removed in 1878; photograph of silver Yarlington Cup 1611-12 given by A J Rogers, Rector 1876-1908, now in Bristol Museum

Mosaic memorial by James Powell to Edwin Rogers MC killed at Ypres in 1916 (James Powell of Whitefriars Glass Foundry wanted to find a use for discarded pieces of glass – he created some 900 mosaics, mostly memorials)

Nave with north aisle leading into the vestry, robust arcade and ‘coarse’ Geometric windows, including ‘rose’ west window

1921 mosaic reredos by James Powell depicting the Annunciation to the Virgin Mry by the Archangel

Composite chancel arch each pillar with cluster of four coloured marble shafts

Norman or Saxon tower arch; under arch two carved corbel stones

Memorials – many memorials to the Rogers family of Yarlington House

Huge chancel with priest’s door and Easter sepulchre

Coved timber roof

Three bells in the tower

The tower with crochet pinnacles and hunky punks  (grotesques) on the corners

An ancient sarcophagus (stone coffin) found under the chancel floor in 1878

A burial plot enclosed by railings

The World War I memorial

Two chest tombs

Contact Us

For information on Safeguarding including contact details for the Parish Safeguarding Officer please refer to the Safeguarding Statement on the Homepage of this Camelot Parishes website.

1 Corinthians 12:5 “

There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.”