The Church today

Christians have been meeting in Colerne's parish church for more than eight centuries and continue to do so.

Everyone is welcome as we join with the worldwide Church to offer worship, praise and thanksgiving to God.

Regular worship

Our Sunday morning services of Holy Communion are held  from 09.30 to 10.30 am, with the exception of the monthly Benefice-wide services, which start at 10.30am and rotate between the parish churches in Colerne and Box; details may be found on the church diary on the Home page. 

On the third Sunday of the month at 9.30am we have a special service when families and children are particularly welcome - it's ok to make a noise!

On the second, third and fourth Sundays of the month, starting at 6pm, we have Evensong, Rejoice and Praise and Taizé services respectively.

On Thursday mornings, starting at 09.45am, we alternate between Holy Communion and Round Table Prayers.

The Church of England

St John the Baptist is the Parish Church of Colerne, which lies is within the Lidbrook Benefice, Chippenham Deanery and Diocese of Bristol of the Church of England.
The Church of England is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Communion comprises more than 85 million members in 44 regional and national member churches in more than 160 countries.

More information:
The Diocese of Bristol
The Church of England
The Anglican Communion

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The Church building

A brief history
The existing building dates from 1190-95. However, fragments of a Saxon stone cross associated with the last journey of St Aldhem to his burial in Malmesbury in 709, were found in the wall of the Church when it was restored in 1877. Originally the church was a plain rectangular building, the area of the three eastward bays of the Nave only. About 1240, Walter, the third Baron, added the South Aisle and the Chancel and around 1280 the North Aisle and Lady Chapel were added, together with a clerestory - a series of windows below the roof to give light to the Nave.

In 1384, William of Wykeham granted to the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford, the Manors of Colerne and Sterte and the advowson of the Church of Colerne, an involvement which persists to this day in the college's patronage of the living. About 1450 a major extension took place. The North Aisle and Nave were lengthened westward and the tower built. After two and a half centuries the Church had grown to the size we know today, except for the vestry which was added in 1877.
However, improvements haven't stopped there: in 1997 the organ was replaced and a new loft built to house the pipes and in 2015 the congregation and village raised £100,000 to install a new hospitality area, a toilet and some rather lovely glass porch doors.

Registers
The Church Registers go back to 1560 (though incomplete). The Churchwarden’s account books start from 1692. All but the current registers are now kept at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham, SN15 3QN.

Bells
The bells are a ring of eight and were once regarded as ‘the sweetest in Wiltshire’. The earliest bears the date 1652 and was used as a fire warning until 1916. Five further bells are of the 18th Century (the pub nearest the church is called the "Six Bells") and two more were added in 1877 when the whole peal was re-hung on an oak frame: the bells were again restored in 1996.

Clock
The clock was built in 1685, probably by the village blacksmith. It has only the hour hand, like that of Westminster Abbey. There are only a small number of similar one-handed clocks in England. The clock was restored in 1959, and again in 1968. The most recent restoration of the clock was carried out in 2008, when the large stone weights were replaced by autowinding gear and the clock face was also replaced.
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Organ
The organ was built by J. W. Walker & Sons, a firm of organ builders based in London, in 1907 and originally was installed in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Peter Street, Yeovil in 1908, where it was set over the Choir Vestry in the North Transept.  The original tubular pneumatic system was replaced by a low voltage electric system in the 1970s.  When the organ in the Parish church of St John the Baptist, Colerne required replacing and the Church of the Holy Trinity Church was due to close, considerations were given to transferring the organ.  Records show that a visit to Yeovil from Colerne took place in 1994 and that plans and the subsequent work to dismantle the organ and bring it to and install it in Colerne took some five years to come to fruition.  The work included: building a new, elevated organ loft in the Lady Chapel to hold the organ pipes; locating a new blower to provide the wind in the boiler house below the church; replacing the previous electrical system by a solid state electronic system that also incorporated a modern piston system; and providing a new oak drawstop console.  The organ was dedicated by The Bishop of Bristol in 2000 to mark the millennium.

The Friends of Colerne Church
Major projects like the restoration of the bells and the clock are only possible because of the dedicated work of the Friends of Colerne Church.  You can read more about the Friends here.