Parish Church
St. Mary's Church, in the village centre, has a rood screen forty-two feet long, and the stained-glass window dates from the fifteenth century. The rood screen is very unusual in being complete from end to end but also has the original coving, cornice and cresting. The wainscoting has painted figures. Between 1681 and 1834 the village was served by just three vicars: John Prince, John Fox and John Edwards.
The church was once visited by William III and more recently by the Duke of Kent. American soldiers were stationed in the village in the build up to D-Day and were billeted in tents opposite the church, in which items of that time are on display. American veterans revisited Berry Pomeroy for the 60th anniversary of the invasion. The church features in the final wedding scene of Ang Lee's 1995 film Sense and Sensibility.
To celebrate the turning of the millennium in 2000, a new bench was erected opposite the War Memorial, and every summer, a fete is held in the grounds of the manor house next to the church, which includes maypole dancing, Devonshire cream teas and a coconut shy.
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Famous quotes containing the words parish and/or church:
“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, and the stars begin to flicker in the sky,”
—Mitchell Parish (1901–1993)
“The Anglican Church is marked by the grace and good sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The gospel it preaches is, “By taste are ye saved.” ... It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly well bred and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social arts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)