History of
St Mary the Virgin
Parish Church
1200 – The Earliest Church
Take fromm the orginal text written by the late Leslie Cram in 2012 and published by the Harby History Group
2026 additions to the text by Matt Smith are highlighted in Blue
​
Origins of the Settlement
The name Harby (originally recorded as Hardebi) indicates that the village originated as a Scandinavian settlement, probably established around AD 850. In Old Norse, harb refers to herds of cattle, while by denotes a settlement. The linguistic evidence therefore supports a foundation by people migrating from northern Europe.
The Domesday book of 1086 gives a detailed incription of Harby Click Here to read​
​
Conversion to Christianity
These early inhabitants were not Christian on arrival. However, limited historical records from the period — including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — describe the progressive Christianisation of Scandinavian settlers throughout England.
​​
Early Church Structure
The first church erected on the present site was almost certainly a wooden structure. It would have consisted of a simple, elongated rectangular form resembling a barn, divided into two distinct areas:
-
The Nave (western section): used by the local community for assembly and worship.
-
The Chancel (eastern section): used by the clergy, containing an altar positioned against the east wall.
The assumption of an early wooden building is based on widespread construction practices of the time; many churches began in timber, leaving only post-hole traces once the structure had decayed. In Harby’s case, physical evidence of this earliest church survives in the west wall of the nave.
​​
​
​
​​
​
​
​ Example of a early long Barn
​
Winterbourne Medieval Barn​
​​​
​​​
​​​
​​
​​
​​​​​
​​​​
Earliest Documentary Reference
The first known written reference to the church at Harby occurs in the records of the Bishop of Lincoln. These note that a rector, Robert, was serving the parish in 1220.
Moving forward from 1220 you can study the priests of Hrby if you Click Here
1275 – The Stone Tower and Steeple
​
Sometime in the 13th century, the stone tower that we see today was added to the west end of the church. It has strong corner buttresses to keep it stable. If you look inside the church, you can actually see these buttresses from the east side of the tower, which is also the west wall of the original nave.
Halfway up the tower there’s a row of stones that stick out slightly — this goes around the north, south, and west sides outside. On the inside, you’ll only see this feature near the buttresses, leaving a flat area in the middle where the old wooden nave used to attach. Since the nave was once made of wood, there isn’t any clear line showing where it joined on; if it had been stone, we’d expect to see some trace of that connection today.
Above the west window on the outside of the tower, there’s a small niche where a statue once stood — most likely of St Mary the Virgin, the church’s patron saint. Just below it there’s a shield-shaped stone, and you can find matching shields on the north and south walls too. These would probably have been painted with the coats of arms of important local families connected to Harby.