---
title: "St Mary the Virgin, Potterne"
description: "Located in Potterne, Wiltshire. Built Thirteenth century, with fifteenth-century tower work; restored 1870–72. Diocese of Salisbury. Grade I. Early English, with Perpendicular tower stage style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Wiltshire","Potterne","Grade I","Early English","Ewan Christian"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-virgin-potterne"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:32:43.635Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T20:33:30.749Z"
location: "Potterne, Wiltshire"
country: "England"
county: "Wiltshire"
town: "Potterne"
address: "Potterne, Wiltshire, SN10 5NF"
postcode: "SN10 5NF"
built: "Thirteenth century, with fifteenth-century tower work; restored 1870–72"
architect: "Ewan Christian (1870–72 restoration)"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Mary"]
diocese: "Salisbury"
grade: "I"
style: "Early English, with Perpendicular tower stage"
materials: "Rubble stone with stone-tiled roofs and coped gables"
website: "http://www.stmaryspotterne.co.uk/index.html"
openingHours: "Open daily."
parish: "Potterne"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1258968"
gridReference: "ST 995 585"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Mary the Virgin, Potterne

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I cruciform parish church on the High Street at Potterne, Wiltshire, a remarkably uniform Early English building with a central tower, in the Diocese of Salisbury.

## Overview

Historic England records a thirteenth-century church with some fifteenth-century work to the tower, restored in 1870–72 by E. Christian. The fabric is rubble stone with stone-tiled roofs. The plan is an aisleless nave, chancel and transepts with central tower and north and south porches. Long lancets are linked by a continuous hoodmould and sill course; clasping buttresses mark the corners. The tower has a fine ashlar bell stage with two large two-light plate-traceried openings each side, infilled with fifteenth-century ashlar panelling, and a fifteenth-century pierced panelled battlement, pinnacles and a polygonal south-east stair turret.

The interior is severely regular, without carved elaboration. Fittings noted in the listing include a painted panel dated 1598, a piscina and aumbry, and a 1936 organ screen by Sir Charles Nicholson in the south transept. Local accounts highlight an Anglo-Saxon font with a Latin inscription from Psalm 42 and a monument by Nollekens.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1258968](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1258968)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary, Potterne](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101258968-church-of-st-mary-potterne)
- [St Mary’s, Potterne](http://www.stmaryspotterne.co.uk/index.html)