The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin at Kempsford is an impressive building.  Its setting is picturesque and peaceful and well kept.  Then you enter the church building and, well, wow!  It is big, tall and there is so much to take in.  Undoubtedly the most striking feature is the vaulted ceiling of the tower.  According to the history leaflet available inside the church, the tower was constructed in the 13th Century and rebuilt in the 15th Century, when the carved ceiling was added.  The carvings were repainted in 1862 and still look to be in splendid condition.  Our photographs cannot do it justice - it is so high up and out of reach of the camera's flash.  The stained glass windows of the north and south sides of the tower are just breathtaking for their size and colour.

There are many other beautiful things to see inside the church.  The floor tiles are in good condition and very elaborate compared to other churches we have visited.  And there are so many windows - large ones, small ones and some very high up.  Well done to the congregation who have taken their responsibility of looking after the fabric and history of their building seriously with such good results.

It is a shame our photographs do not match our enthusiasm!  The outside is surrounded by trees, so we only have a couple of shots; the inside is, well, tall and lots of the detail not caught by our cameras.  At the time of our visit in June 2001 we did not have a digital camera and most of our pictures are shots captured from video camera footage - sadly they are of poor quality but probably better than not having them at all.  We really should return now we have a digital camera and take some better photographs.  Although we suspect the trees are even taller and the camera still won't catch those high-up objects.

The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed building - more information about the listing can be found at the  Historic England  website.