St Mary's Church

Brading, United Kingdom

St Mary's Church dates from the twelfth century. At this church the Rev. Legh Richmond is thought to have originated the now globally popular idea of using boards with movable numbers to indicate hymn numbers during church services. The 13th-century tower is of a very unusual style in that it is built on four piers at the entrance to the church. This is one of only four in examples in Britain. The tower contains a ring of 8 bells which the heaviest weighs 10.5cwt in the key of G. The oldest bell was made in 1594.

The current church building has aspects dating from the late 12th century onward, with the majority of the present building resulting from the alterations of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Oglander Chapel on the eastern end of the south aisle is the resting place of members of that family and includes two elaborately carved and painted wooden effigies of knights placed upon two of the tombs. Whilst installed by the family itself, their appearance does not represent the accurate historical dress of the time for the family members in the tombs beneath. In the north aisle there are funerary hatchments of the Oglander family on the walls, and two fonts from the 13th and 15th centuries.

The churchyard contains the Commonwealth war graves of four British Army soldiers of World War I.

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Details

Founded: 12th century
Category: Religious sites in United Kingdom

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

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4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Timothy Welstead (9 months ago)
Lovely church to visor.
C (11 months ago)
A really interesting church building. Really worth a visit to learn about the history of the town of Brading, past residences and businesses.There is also a family Chapel for the past residence of Nunwell House, the Oglander family.
Annmarie Jackson (2 years ago)
Ginge Taylor (2 years ago)
Great village, representing the history of the area on the Isle of Wight. Traditionally a cattle/beef farming area, the town has a monument commemorating the bullring. The church at St Mary's is open each day. The village hall was open and the staff very friendly. As a WW1 reseacher the cenotaph was clean and tidy. A nice touch was that the church had rung the bells to commemorate the 100th year of the passing of islanders who served in WW1.
David Smith (2 years ago)
This is a very pretty old (dating back to 1300s) church in the small town of Brading just a mile or so from the south east coast of the Isle of Wight. I'm not "religious" but decided to drop in one Sunday morning and we enjoyed a very relaxing, interesting, intelgent - not religious led "talk" from the happy and enthusiastic "young" female vicar. It's definitely worth a visit if you are in the area and they have a play area for children and a small "farm" across the graveyard with a few young pigs and goats that little ones will enjoy. It delivered a gentle message to everyone about how we should share our planet.
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