St. Mary's Church Hartley Wintney Restoration

St. Mary's church was built in the 13th century by the nuns of the long-vanished Wintney Priory. The grade II listed building has been in need of repair and maintenance since it was vested into the Redundant Churches Fund in 1975, which the Churches Conservation Trust manage.

In 2002 the group Friends of St. Mary's was formed to take on the challenge of restoring this local piece of history and breathing new life into a church that has endured through the ages and significant moments in British history. The Church survived the reformation, the Civil War, and rung it's bells in response to King George VI's request for a day of national prayer as the British Army was being evacuated from Dunkirk.

The bell tower then acted as an observation post for the Home Guard.

The graveyard is the final resting place of a number of notable heroes from British history, including:

Lieutenant General Henry Hawley, who defeated Charles Edward Stuart (Bonney Prince Charlie) at the Battle of Culloden

William Richard Lethaby an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture and in the fields of conservation and art education.

Field Marshal Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the Second World War.

Since they started, the Friends of St. Mary's have run tours, held religious celebrations in order to raise money to repair the roof, brought to the fore the medieval frescos, restored the bell and bell tower and brought new life into the ageing interior. The group have also cleared the graveyard and rediscovered graves of long-lost locals.

The next project is to raise money for a new organ to be used at religious services and restore one of the damaged medieval internal walls.