St Marys is reopening!
The doors of St Marys will reopen on February 1st. The reordering project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and numerous national and local funders, is now moving into its second stage. Having completed the main capital works the building can reopen to the public, with its completely re-ordered nave and state of the art heating system. In the second stage, during the rest of 2026, we will be developing the visitor experience, with a new children’s area and heritage interpretation scheme and enabling further community use of the building.
Whilst this is happening, the building will be back in use as a sacred place, open from dawn to dusk every day from Monday the 2nd February. There will be eight days of rededication events and opportunities to visit, from Sunday 1st to Sunday 8th. Further details below. Regular updates will continue to appear in the news feed on this website plus information about reopening events and new activities.
Reopening Events 1st - 8th February 2026
Thanks to our Funders
We have raised over £1.4 million pounds for this phase of the renovation and renewal of St. Mary’s. The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded us nearly £1 million pounds and we have also had grants offered or made by Garfield Weston, The National Churches Trust, The Wolfson Trust, Benefact Trust, Friends of St. Marys, Totnes Heritage Trust, The Headley Trust, The Beatrice Laing Trust, The MC Benthall Trust, The Wakefield Trust, The Devon Historic Churches Trust, The Frederick Mulder Trust, The Elmgrant Trust, Totnes Town Council and The ESG Robinson Charitable Trust.
We are grateful to all the grant and trust making bodies supporting this work and especially to the individual residents and parishioners who have donated.
Read more about Uplift here.
I hope you find the information on the rest of this website useful and thank you so much for all the support already received.
Blessings
Fr. Jim
You may know of St Mary’s Church already but if not, you’re invited to continue reading and learn more about our church which has stood at the heart of Totnes for over 500 years. At least two other churches came before us on a site hallowed for over a thousand years by prayer, chant and silence.
Monks, merchants, the rich and the poor have left the imprint of their prayers here. And today a wide variety of people of all faiths and social and economic backgrounds pass through our doors to light a candle and offer a moment of reflection.
And so much more.