About Us

Barlow is a friendly church with a warm welcome for all, young and old alike. The main Sunday service is Sung Mass at 11 am, usually with a more informal Family Mass on the 2nd Sunday. Our Anglo-Catholic tradition, unusual for a village church, was established in the early twentieth century and we maintain it with enthusiasm. 

Our vicar is the Rev'd. Sarah Colver who leads a small team of ministers working in the local area. We welcome enquiries about baptism (christening) and we are also delighted to conduct weddings, services of blessing after civil marriage or for the renewal of vows in this delightful setting. 

Our clergy can also offer funeral services here in church, at the crematorium or at other local sites e.g woodland burial grounds. The  large, well tended churchyard is open to new burials and we have a garden of remembrance for the burial of ashes.

Please see the church website (www.barlow-church.org.uk) for further details about the special services that we can offer to mark significant moments in the lives of our parishioners. 

The highlight of the year from the village point of view is the service of Blessing of the Wells, held at 6.30 pm on a Wednesday in mid August, close to St Lawrence's Day. The service is followed by a procession through the village led by a brass band and during which the three village wells are blessed, censed and sprinkled, and people and passers by are soaked. The whole event has been described as 'great fun', 'old fashioned' and 'very Mediterranean.' One onlooker said he had never before seen a church procession with pints of beer held high.

The Grade 2* listed building is Norman, built on land donated to the monks of Louth Priory in 1140. Cromwell commandeered the church to billet his troops during the Civil War. It fell into dilapidation and was patched up in 1784 before being fully restored three years later. In 1870 the chancel and vestry were added in the Norman style. The Duke of Rutland funded the re-roofing and major restoration of the interior in 1906 including the removal of the minstrel’s gallery above the Lady Chapel. In 1920 a spate of generous gifts funded the addition of the organ gallery and the rood and vestry screens and chancel stalls. In the 1930s the Barlow family restored the Lady Chapel. Other gifts paid for the Lych gate to be built, a new pulpit, new oak pews and oak wall screen to the rear of the altar. The churchyard was extended in the 1980s and land for further extension was purchased by the PCC in 2006. A new vestry, kitchen and loos were built in 2010-2011 which are well used throughout the year- and a further extension  - a marquee - means that we can extend hospitality to everyone during the Open garden and Flower Festival. 

The Vicar also looks after two other parishes: Old Brampton and Loundsley Green.

See also http://www.oldbramptonchurch.org.uk