Welcome

"The only way to have a friend is to be one"

Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1841

It's not just people who need friends, buildings need them too. England's find heritage of ancient churches has only survived because of the love, care and commitment of our forefathers.

There has been a church in Berry Pomeroy, on the site of the present church, since the 11th Century.

Our Church of St Mary the Virgin, built in the 1490's by the Lord of the Manor, Sir Richard de Pomeroy, is one of the surviving English parish churches that is over 500 years old. Its foundation stone would have been laid at about the same time that Christopher Columbus was discovering America.


The church continues to play an important role in the life of our small village. The 'Friends of Berry Pomeroy Church' raise funds to cover the day-to-day running costs of the Church and also help to ensure this beautiful building is kept in the glorious condition in which our ancestors passed it to us.

The Church, supported by the Friends, hold coffee mornings, 'bring and buy' sales, and the hightlight of the year, the Annual fete in the Manor House Gardens. We also benefit from the generosity of visitors, whose members have increased since the church was used for the wedding scene location for the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, which starred Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslett.

In May 2019, Garry and Heather Labbe visited our wonderful church. They were just beginning a month long holiday to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. They happened to meet our Churchwarden (Nichola Boughton) who gave them a tour and mentioned that she was present when the wedding scenes from the Sense & Sensibility film (1995) were filmed. She also took a film clip of Gary and his wife walking out of the Church using the same door as the film. As a thank-you, Gary sent the video attached below. We think that you will enjoy it.

Find out more about becoming a Friend of Berry Pomeroy Church.