St. Mark's Church, Wootton

St Mark’s Church stands in Wootton on the Isle of Wight, a small building set among the island’s gentle hills. The church was finished in 1909 and designed by the local architect Percy Stone. James Macarthur, Bishop of Southampton, laid the foundation stone before the builders Messrs Jenkins completed the work. Messrs Jenkins had also built Quarr Abbey, a nearby monastery of stone. On 29 August 1909 the church was dedicated for worship. After the Second World War the church suffered damage and was closed for many years. It stood empty until 1970 when John Henry Lawrence Phillips, Bishop of Portsmouth, rededicated the building. By then the parish was growing quickly and needed a place for worship again. The church shares its parish with St Edmund’s Church in the same village. An organ was later installed inside the building. Inside, visitors find a plain but peaceful interior with whitewashed walls and simple wooden fittings. The organ stands at the west end, its pipes rising above the pews. Tall windows let in soft light that falls on the plain floor and the altar at the east end. Outside, the churchyard is quiet with grass and a few gravestones. The building sits close to the road yet feels sheltered by the surrounding trees.