St Mary's Church, Car Colston

St Mary’s Church stands in the quiet village of Car Colston in the East Midlands. Built in the 13th century, it is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England. The church shares its parish with St Wilfrid’s in nearby Screveton. Its stone tower, restored in 1911, rises above the surrounding fields. Three Grade II listed headstones stand in the churchyard, each carved with intricate scrolls and borders. The oldest, to Thomas Woolerton from 1739, bears the maker’s mark ‘J. Sparrow fecit’. Another, to John Woolerton from 1740, shows foliate designs in the style of the same hand. The church’s clock has its own history. Richard Roe made the first one around 1678. In 1888 it was replaced by a new clock by G. & F. Cope of Nottingham to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The mechanism used two dials, each two feet wide, and struck the hour on a bell weighing 910 kilograms. Nearby, a Wordsworth and Maskell organ from about 1900 still serves the congregation. Brass memorials on the walls recall local families and individuals from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Inside, the nave holds simple wooden pews beneath a plaster ceiling. Sunlight falls through clear glass windows onto the memorials. The tower arch frames views of the village rooftops and distant farmland. A narrow wooden door leads to the ringing chamber where the clock’s wheels still turn. The churchyard’s yew trees cast long shadows over the weathered stones. It remains a place where centuries of life and worship are quietly gathered.