St Mary the Virgin
Dymock, Gloucestershire
A large medieval church with a well known connection to the Dymock Poets of the First World War.
Ours is a Grade II* church is built high above the River Severn comprising tower, nave, chancel, south porch, north aisle and vestry.
First mentioned in 1070 and reputedly built on the site of a Roman lighthouse, evidence indicates a Saxon base of the tower. Part of a 1310 window remains and the 12th century font. Small stone sculptures were defaced and damaged during the Civil war.
A major re-ordering by John Norton in 1858 introduced more new pews, some smaller ones in the nave for when a school was initially located in the church and the removal of the older boxed ones. Significant windows by Mary Lowndes, Heaton Butler and Bayne, an 1858 O’Connor window replaced in 1926, but stored, preceded small changes in the 1920s when the font was moved, and a side altar created in the north aisle.
Nothing of significance has been done since the 1920s to alter the interior of the church layout until this re-ordering to insert a lavatory, kitchenette and make the north aisle a flexible space both for worship and wider community use. It remains the parish church despite the centre of the population moving to Tutshill where St Luke’s was built in 1853. It is the largest building in the Parish with excellent acoustics. There are 15 Grade II monuments in the closed churchyard.