The Parish Church of St. Mary's, Widford

We meet every Sunday at 9.30am; and on a 5th Sunday in the month (when there is one) we join with other members of our partner churches for an additional service at 4 for 4:30pm (see Churchtalk for more details). This is also displayed on the front page of the website.

In December 2019 we had a lovely Carol Service and our Parish choir also sang to our friends at Thetford Court (we have kept up this tradition every year since)!

The services @ St Marys are traditional Anglican in style but relaxed and all are welcome. We usually have a keyboard accompanying the hymns and sometimes guest appearances of other instruments!

• The 1st & 3rd Sunday mornings are Holy Communion. 
• On the 2nd Sunday of the month we have a service of Morning Prayer.

• On the 4th Sunday of the month we have All-Age Worship led by Jess and/or Pam!

St. Marys, is open every Friday afternoon between 1 and 4pm throughout the summer. Please do feel free to drop in. Members of the congregation will be there gardening so if you have any questions about the building and grave yard, they will be happy to answer your questions, or make you a cup of tea!

The Parish Church of St. Mary, Widford stands proudly as a gateway to Chelmsford. Since the 1300s there has been a church standing on this site but the current church was built by Arthur Pryor (who owned Hylands House) in 1862. In 2012 we celebrated St Mary's 150th Birthday with a flower festival!

If you have ever been to Galleywood and seen St. Michaels church, you will notice that the two are very similar! This is because Arthur Pryor fell out with the people of Widford and decided to move out of St. Marys and build a new and bigger church a little way up the road!

Sadly, St. Marys - a Grade II listed building (List Entry Number 1141336) - is showing its age and we are in the process of bringing the building into a good state of repair. In 2016, we saw the installation of new, more environmentally friendly LED bulbs that have improved the lighting significantly. We also had the stained glass windows cleaned. The car park was also given some attention and gravel put down to improve the situation underfoot. 2020 has (finally!!!) seen the inside repainted giving a brighter, fresher feel to the church. 

We have also had two new notice boards installed at each entrance to the Churchyard, they were blessed by Bishop John in a special service.

For more history about St. Marys, please click here