St Mary’s Church
11th century · the Seafarers’ Window · the lightest ring of ten bells in the world
Standing on the highest point of the village, St Mary’s Church has watched over Tollesbury for almost a thousand years. The lowest stages of the nave and tower date from the 11th century and are built from Roman brick salvaged from an earlier building on this site. The upper two stages of the tower are red brick, added in the 16th or 17th century – nine centuries of repair, addition and survival, visible in the stonework as you look up. The church belonged to Barking Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, when its ownership passed to Thomas Cromwell and subsequently through many hands.
The Seafarers’ Window was installed in 1963, designed by Derek Wilson and given by F E Hasler of New York – almost certainly a figure from the America's Cup world, since the window is a roll call of the great racing yachts that Tollesbury men sailed. The central panel shows Christ’s post-resurrection appearance to his apostles on the shore of Galilee – “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” – but the flanking lights tell Tollesbury’s story. Four specific named yachts are depicted: the schooner America, the 1870 challenger Cambria, Shamrock II, and Endeavour I – the last three all skippered by local captain Ted Heard. Alongside them are the working vessels of the Essex coast: a Billy Boy, a ketch-rigged barge, a Stackie, and a Tollesbury oyster smack as she would have looked around 1922. The window was dedicated on 26 November 1963 by the Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion.
Did you know?
St Mary’s tower holds ten bells – the lightest ring of ten bells in the world. The earliest was cast in 1604 by Miles Graie of Colchester; the most recent were added in 1990. They have been ringing over this village for more than four hundred years.
The church is also home to the famous “Swearing Font,” an 18th-century baptismal font with a rhyme carved into its side:
“Good people all I pray take care,
That in ye Church you do not swear.
As this man did.”
The inscription commemorates an incident in 1718 when a man named John Norman came drunk into the church and cursed aloud during the service. Rather than face prosecution, he paid a five-pound fine, which funded the new font. The churchwardens had the warning carved into the stone – a lasting reminder to mind your language in church.