The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene. Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The church was built from 1908 to 1930, and was designed by

Sir Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect, one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishment of churches, and the desi ...

. It is in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The design and interior of the church was influenced by the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

and the Victorian revival of ritualism Financing of the work was largely due to the Misses Sharman of Wellingborough. On 9 June 1970, St Mary's Church was designated a

. It is one of only a few Grade I listed buildings built in the 20th century.

Present day

The parish of St Mary the Virgin Wellingborough is in the Archdeaconry of Northampton in the Diocese of Peterborough. St Mary's stands in the

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

of the

. As the parish has passed a resolution to reject the

ordination of women The ordination of women to Minister of religion, ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain religious groups in which ordination ...

, it receives

alternative episcopal oversight A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction "are unable to receive the ministry of w ...

from the

Bishop of Richborough The Bishop of Richborough is a suffragan bishop and provincial episcopal visitor for the whole of the Province of Canterbury in the Church of England. Since 2025, Luke Irvine-Capel has served as Bishop of Richborough. History The see was erec ...

. It is also affiliated with

Forward in Faith Forward in Faith (FiF) is an organisation operating in the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. It represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is characterised by its opposition to the ordination of women to the pri ...

and The Society.

Notable clergy

* Michael Bent, later Archdeacon of Taranaki in New Zealand and Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Fiji, served his curacy here from 1955 to 1960.

List of vicars

* 1905-1928: Fr Thomas Watts * 1929-1946: Fr Conrad Radford * 1947-1952: Fr Rowland Taylor * 1952–1966: Fr Raymond Brown * 1967–1988: Fr Thomas Finch SSC * 1990–1994: Fr Alan Robinson (

priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent; they will normally work on a short-term contract and have less freedom to act within the ...

) (now Rector of Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Maiden Lane - the Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament for the Diocese of Westminster) * 1996–present: Fr Robert Farmer SSC (priest in charge, 1996–2000)

References

External links

Parish website

A Church Near You entry
{{Coord, 52.3031, -0.6796, display=title

Wellingborough