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