Birkin - Church of St Mary

Birkin St Mary's Church dates from around 1150. Descriptions of it refer to a number of monuments including a cartouche for the Thornton family, successive generations of which were rectors during the 17th century, and an 18th century wall monument dedicated to the wife of a rector with an inscription by the Poet Laureate William Whitehead. Thomas Hill Green's father was the rector of St Mary's in the 1830s. In 2008 it was reported that the church had been damaged after the roof was targeted by lead thieves