The Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin

This Church is not the first one that the parish has had. Roger of Berkeley is said to have founded Arlingham Church,sometime before 1146, which was when the monks ofLeonard Stanley were put in charge of the parish.

The present building dates from 1372, and is made of bluelias stone. The tower is made from Cotswold Stone, and the contract for the tower was that it would be built at a rate of twelve feet a year over three years. The floor level rises by steps at the chancel and sanctuary, because the building is on a sloped site. There are further steps at the porch entrance and at the door out of the chancel.

Two windows in the North Wall still contain well-preserved stained glass – probably dating to when the church was built. Fragments from the fourteenth century appear in the other windows, but what can be seen today is a fraction of what was here originally.

The Dutch Oak Pews were fitted in about 1781. They were originally high-backed panelled pews with doors, but these were cut down and made into open pews sometime in the last century. It is known that some of the old pews were fitted with iron hooks or stanchions to hold muskets – which is a throwback from when the old Court opposite the church was occupied by a garrison in the Civil War.

The tower contains six bells cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1717. These replaced the four bells that were known to be in place at the time of Queen Elizabeth 1^st.

 Memorials in the chancel commemorate families of former vicars, and in the nave are memorials of the Yate family, which lived at the Court for about 450 years. The great English sculptor, Nollekins, was responsible for the fine figure, Piety, commemorating Mary Yate in 1777. Her son was the last male heir to the Court estate.