St. Mary's Church, Brading is a parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 in the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 located in Brading

Brading

The ancient 'Kynges Towne' of Brading is the main town of the civil parish of the same name. The ecclesiastical parish of Brading used to cover about a tenth of the Isle of Wight. The current civil parish now includes the town itself and Adgestone, Morton, Nunwell and other outlying areas between...

, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

.

History

The church is medieval dating from the twelfth century. At this church the Revd Legh Richmond is thought to have originated the now globally popular idea of using boards with movable numbers to indicate hymn numbers during church services. The tower is of a very unusual style in that it is built on four piers at the entrance to the church. This is one of only four in examples in Britain. The tower contains a ring of 8 bells which the heaviest weighs 10.5cwt in the key of G. The oldest bell was made in 1594.

List of incumbents

• Legh Richmond
  Legh Richmond
  Legh Richmond , English divine, was born on the 29th of January 1772, in Liverpool. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1798 was appointed to the joint curacies of St. Mary's Church, Brading and St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland on the Isle of Wight...
  
   1798 - 1805

Parish Status

The church is within a group which includes:

• St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland
  St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland
  St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland is a parish church in the Church of England located in Yaverland, Isle of Wight.-Parish Status:The church is within a group which includes:*St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland*St. Mary's Church, Brading-Organ:...
  
  
• St. Mary's Church, Brading

Organ

The church has a pipe organ by Forster and Andrews dating from 1864. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.