Anglican Church Venn Ottery is where residents will again be singing harvest hymns of praise and thanksgiving.

Venn Ottery’s villagers will be following in the footsteps of their forefathers when they gather at St Gregory’s Church for their Harvest Festival on Sunday, September 1.

The Service starts at 6pm and will be led by Licensed Lay Minister, Caroline Poultney from the Otter Vale Mission Community (OVMC) team. She said: “Everyone is very welcome to worship with us, including residents from nearby Southerton and Tipton St John and further afield.”

Caroline Poultney said: “We have a high calling to honour and glorify God. That’s what we shall be doing in our service, as well as giving thanks”. Visitors can find peace and tranquillity in the Church which is open daily from 9am to 5pm.

The car park by the Church is private property and visitors are asked not to park there on normal days. Its owner has, however, kindly agreed to allow parking for the Harvest Service only. 

Patronal Festival The occasion is also the Patronal Festival of the Church named after St Gregory the Great (c.540-604). He believed that true holiness lay in humility, and called himself: “The servant of the servants of God”.

Oldest Building St Gregory’s Church, a Grade II Listed Building, is steeped in history. Although the earliest record of a Venn Ottery vicar is in 1208, at least one source suggests there has been a church on the site going back to at least 1095 - perhaps within the lifetimes of those who witnessed the 1066 Norman Conquest.

The present Church, with battlement parapet atop its red sandstone mediaeval tower, is undoubtedly the oldest building in the village. Historic England list the tower as fifteenth century. Believed to have been built on Saxon foundations it houses a ring of three bells, the oldest being cast around the time the tower was built.

The Beer-stone font at the back of the Church is also from that time and has been used for baptisms for about six centuries. In around 1780, tragedy struck Venn Ottery when a fire consumed much of the village including the main part of the Church building, with its thatched roof.