Religious Buildings

For over 1,000 years religion has been an important part of the life of the village, and even in these more secular times church weddings and funerals, the carol service and the church fete are still significant events for many, despite the decline in church attendance. Changes and fluctuations in religious attendance are nothing new however, and as its name indicates Tasburgh's church of St. Mary the Virgin would have been Roman Catholic for the first 500 years of its existence. Over the next 100 years successive English kings and queens attempted to impose their own forms of religious practice, and then in 1660, after the Puritan influences of the Civil War, the restoration of the monarchy led to the permanent establishment of the Church of England.

However the genie that was freedom of worship could not be put back in the bottle so easily, and alterative, less formal and more bible-based movements began to flourish. In the 1650s the sermons of George Fox became the foundation of the Society of Friends, or Quakers as they became known, and 100 years later the preachings of John Wesley led to the growth of Methodism, especially amongst working people, and both of these forms of worship were to play their part in the life of Tasburgh, with its own Quaker Meeting House and Primitive Methodist Chapel.