Church of St Mary

St Mary’s Church stands in the village of Berry Pomeroy in Devon. The present building was rebuilt in the late 15th century by Richard de Pomeroy on the site of an earlier church. It follows the perpendicular style, with a single nave and chancel, north and south aisles, and a porch topped by a parvise. The tower holds eight bells, four cast in the 17th and 18th centuries and four in the late 19th and early 20th. The church has been restored twice, once in the late 17th century and again in 1878–79. Inside, a forty-two-foot rood screen runs from north to south wall and is praised by Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the most perfect in Devon. The screen keeps its original coving, cornice and cresting, and the wainscoting bears painted figures. Stained glass includes panels by Christopher Whall from 1897 and 1908 and one by his daughter Veronica in 1926. Two notable monuments remain: a late 15th-century tomb chest for Sir Richard Pomeroy and his wife, and a later monument to Lord Edward Seymour in the Seymour Chapel. Visitors find the rood screen and painted figures, the Whall windows and the two monuments. The porch displays the Pomeroy arms, and a carved effigy of St George commemorates the First World War dead. A display recalls the American soldiers who prepared for D-Day in the church during the Second World War. The churchyard was used for the final scene of Ang Lee’s film Sense and Sensibility.