St Mary the Virgin
Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire
The parish church of St Mary, St Peter & St Paul is on the edge of the small village of Westbury on Severn in the beautiful Vale of Gloucester. It is an enormous church, the length of two cricket pitches, which suggests the importance it once had in the area. A few yards away from the main building is a stone tower, containing a peal of six bells, which is probably the only surviving part of an earlier church. Cromwell’s soldiers stabled their horses here at one point during the Civil War.
Almost as old as the tower is the tall wooden spire on top. It has an internal construction of timbers that looks like a spider’s web. In the church there is some interesting stained glass, 300 year old pews and an unusual font, with an Elizabethan base. This was lost for many years and finally discovered in a parishioner’s garden.
Visit the church on a summer Sunday afternoon and enjoy the refreshments which are served then!