The Church of St. Mary's is one of only three in Britain to have both a tower and a spire, and very grand it looks too.  The current church members have managed to keep their building as a place of worship foremost, whilst acknowledging its long history; fundraising is an ongoing task involving the whole community and beyond.  It is definitely a much used and loved building.

We spent a whole day in December 2004 photographing the gravestones in the churchyard.  We took one thousand, two hundred and sixty two photographs that day - a record for us!  There were a few that were unusable, and some graves we did not photograph because they were inaccessible or not readable, but we do have the majority of them on this website.  Use the link above to take you to the alphabetical links to the 50 plus pages they are displayed on.  Alternatively use the Search Surnames link at the top and bottom of each page.

Richard Carruthers-Zurowski has spent many years researching various families of this area; his thoroughness, enthusiasm and dedication to the project is something to be admired.  Follow this link for  more information  on the Sadler and Sheppard families.  Mandy had the pleasure of meeting Richard at Purton in July 2004.

For more information about the church, visit their website at:  St. Mary Website  - this will open on their Brief Guide page, but there are plenty of other pages to read.