St Mary's Church (Edvin Loach)

 church, Grade II Listed (UK)

This church is one of four in the Greater Whitbourne Parish in the Hereford diocese.

The most isolated of the group, St Mary’s lies at the end of a lane in this small hamlet of twelve dwellings, mainly farms or the homes of farming families. Nevertheless, there is a good congregation which works together to raise the large sums necessary for the church’s survival.

In fact there are two churches, one being the ruins of the original Saxo-Norman building (St Giles), with its herring-bone stone walls and tiny tower. The striking doorway, lintel and pediment as well as corner stones are of tufa (the stone formed from deposits of calcium carbonate found near springs). The ruin is a scheduled ancient monument, owned by English Heritage and appears in their national handbook. Parishioners voluntarily help them with upkeep. The patronal service each year normally begins in the ruins.

The newer church (St Mary) built in 1860 was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and paid for by the Barneby family who were the local landlords and lived nearby at Saltmarshe Castle, itself built in 1845 and demolished in 1953. The church is in the neo- or Victorian-Gothic style, of which Scott was the leading exponent. He designed many churches, but this was one he later seems to have sent his principal pupil to learn from.