A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes called the ecclesiastical parish, to avoid confusion with the civil parish which many towns and villages have).
In many English villages the church is a prominent landmark and its tower is often the tallest structure in the settlement.
Lancaster Priory, formally the Priory Church of St Mary, is the Church of England parish church of the city of Lancaster, Lancashire, England. It is located near Lancaster Castle and since 1953 has been designated a Grade I listed building. It is in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the Diocese of Blackburn. Its benefice is combined with that of St John and St Anne.
Escomb Church is the Church of England parish church of Escomb, County Durham, a village about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Bishop Auckland.
It is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon churches in England and one of only four complete Anglo-Saxon churches remaining in England, the others being St Laurence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Greensted Church, and All Saints' Church, Brixworth. The church is a Grade I listed building.
St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church located in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, central London. It was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fit for the habitations of Gentlemen and men of ability". Initially serving as an auxiliary chapel for the St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish, it was raised to a parish church with a dedication to Saint Paul in 1646, as the Covent Garden district expanded. The church is nicknamed "the actors' church" by a long association with the theatre community, particularly in the West End.
Completed in 1633, St Paul's was the first entirely new church to be built in London since the Reformation. Its design and the layout of the square have been attributed to Inigo Jones since the 17th century, although firm documentary evidence is lacking. According to an often repeated story, recorded by Horace Walpole, Lord Bedford asked Jones to design a simple church "not much better than a barn", to which the architect replied "Then you shall have the handsomest barn in England".
The Collegiate Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It is in the centre of the town just east of the market place. It is Grade I listed, and a member of the Major Churches Network.
The church has the status of collegiate church as it had a college of secular canons. In governance and religious observance it was similar to a cathedral (although not the seat of a bishop and without diocesan responsibilities). There is a Bishop of Warwick, but this is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Coventry.
Sherborne Abbey, otherwise the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Sherborne in the English county of Dorset. It was formerly a Saxon Catholic cathedral (705–1075) and a Benedictine abbey church (998–1539), before becoming a Church of England parish church in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries.
The parish of Christ Church is one of eleven in Barbados. It has a land area of 57 km (22 sq mi) and is found at the southern end of the island. Christ Church has survived by name as one of the original six parishes created in 1629 by Governor Sir William Tufton.
The parish contains the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport as well as the last remaining mangrove swamp in the country, the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. Under Barbados's historic vestry, the main parish church was originally seated near Dover. After it and the courtyard were destroyed by flood in 1669, the main parish church moved to Oistins area, becoming the main town and former capital of the parish. The South Point Lighthouse is located in South Point, Christ Church, between Atlantic Shores and Green Garden, also in Christ Church.
West gallery music, also known as Georgian psalmody, refers to the sacred music (metrical psalms, with a few hymns and anthems) sung and played in Church of England parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850. In the late 1980s, west gallery music experienced a revival and is now sung by several west gallery "quires" (choirs).
The term "west gallery" derives from the wooden galleries which in the 18th century were constructed at the west end of typical churches, and from which gallery the choir would perform. Churches were built in a standard layout, with the nave running from east-west away from the altar, so that the west gallery or choir, would face the altar, the same way as, but above, the church-goers. Victorians disapproved of the Georgian galleries, and most were removed during restorations in the 19th century.
St Paul's Church, Jarrow, is a Church of England parish church in the Parish of Jarrow and Simonside, on the south bank of the River Tyne in northern England. It was founded in 681 as a part of the Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey. Most of the church is later, but the chancel is the remains of a free-standing chapel of the original monastery. Above the chancel arch is a dedication stone dating to 23 April 685, making this one of, if not the, oldest church dedication stones in England. The Church was dedicated to St Paul by King Ecgfrith and Abbot Ceolfrith. The priest and scholar Bede spent most of his life at the monastery and almost certainly worshipped in the oldest part of the church.
St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated in honour of Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval period. This location, at that time, was farmlands and fields beyond the London wall.
St Martin's became a principal parish church west of the old City in the early modern period as Westminster's population grew. When its medieval and Jacobean structure was found to be near failure, the present building was constructed in an influential neoclassical design by James Gibbs in 1722–1726. The church is one of the visual anchors adding to the open-urban space around Trafalgar Square.