About Us

The church at Thrigby, dedicated to St Mary, is an ancient structure of stone and flint and the tower retains a fire place and flue which, long ago, had an oven used for the purpose of baking the wafer bread.

Apart from Thrigby Wildlife Park, which is right next to the church, and the farm next door, there are very few residential properties left in Thrigby and regular services are no longer held here.  

The howler monkeys next door at the wildlife park certainly make their presence known and, from the graveyard, the tigers can sometimes been seen wandering round their enclosure.

St Mary's Church is technically a chapel of ease but, due to falling masonry has now been closed to the public. In reality St Mary's Church has no congregation let alone a priest. It has no power, water or other facilities and has not been used for anything more than occasional evensong services in summer for a very long time. It is linked with All Saints Church at Filby, less than 1 mile distant, which is now the main focus of the local worshiping community. However, due to ever more thinly spread resources the parish of Filby feels it can no longer justify support of any kind for a church that has no current purpose. This is a problem that increasing besets rural parishes as congregations age and dwindle. The Norwich Diocese is aware of the situation and St Mary's is on the list of churches whose fate is being reviewed by the Diocese commission on church buildings:

https://www.dioceseofnorwich.org/churches/buildings/the-church-buildings-commission/ 

The churchyard, however, remains open where several graves are tended regularly and there have even been some recent burials. This is a tranquil spot, Tigers and gibbons notwithstanding and it must be hoped that some new purpose may in future be found for this isolated rural church.

Should anyone require further information or wish to gain access, please go to our contact page.