About Us

  Some history and information about the church 

The beautiful medieval church of St Mary the Virgin stands on a hill top in Little Sampford. (New Sampford in the time of William the Conqueror.) The church contains much to admire. Behind the high altar is a stained glass window of the Virgin and Child. In the north aisle a window depicts St Francis of Assisi, who would have been delighted in the churchyard's dedicated conservation area where wildflowers flourish, along with wildlife, including barn and tawny owls, kestrels, weasels, adders, rabbits and hares. 

Above the west door, the carving of a behatted boy's head is a reminder of the 1908 discovery in the tower, of a boy's hat, gold-threaded and silk-lined (now in the Saffron Walden Museum). Within the church are the intricate Peck memorials, the Eustace hatchments, while carvings include an angel harpist and a lion's head.   (text from the Saffron Walden Deanery Brouchure of the Churches).