About Us

We are a church community comprising three villages stretched along the north downs in Kent.

The mother church, St Mary the Virgin in the village of Stansted is the centre of our acivities benefitting from a recent extension connected to the main church via a glazed link which includes toilet facilities, an Audio Visual display system and kitchenette. St Mary's church dates from the 14c and although being extensively refurbished in 1883, still has many of the original features.

The Church of the Holy Innocents in the village of Fairseat was built in 1930 as a chapel for the adjacent children's convalescent home, being given to the Church of England by the landowner St Sidney Waterlow when the convalescent home closed.

Vigo Church is held in Vigo village hall serving the people of Vigo Village, a moden rural development with a population of about 2000. Vigo church services are best described as lively with a music group, songs from Mision Praise and relaxed atmosphere.

Holy Innocents church is a small cruciform church, the altar standing in a recess which forms the eastern arm, but the chancel and nave are of uniform width. The south transept contains an organ and pulpit. The north transept comprises a porch, newly converted kitchen and toilet. (formerly the vestry). Beyond the transept is a two bay nave.
The single manual organ is by Osmonds of Taunton.

The church was originally built in 1930 for the children of the nearby convalescent home by Sir Phillip Hickson Waterlow Bt.

The church is high quality built using two inch soft red stock bricks.The roofs are tiled in deep red machine made nib tiles with swept valleys and purpose made hip and half round ridge tiles.

Internally the church is plastered below the common rafter exposing two pine hammer beam trusses with iron straining bars. There is a circular stained glass window in the east elevation and a small square window on the south side of the chancel also contains stained glass of a more traditional design. Other windows are glazed with hammered glass squares in metal frames.

There are no burials so the churchyard is laid to grass studded with decorative trees. The robust brick built lychgate with its tiled roof is similar in design to the church. A bell hangs over the oak entrance gate. The church is bounded by a brick and flint boundary wall on the east and north sides and trees and shrubs on the other two sides.

For information on St Mary's Stansted, Vigo and Fairseat please visit  our website or Facebook Page using the links below:

facebook.com/stmarysstansted