St Mary’s Church, Warwick

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Thu, 12/11/2026 - 00:00

St Mary’s Church at Warwick is wonderfully tall; at neatly 175 feet, its tower is further enhanced by its hilltop location, offering fine views of surrounding Warwickshire, managing to even look down upon the great castle. The internals are light and airy, giving the whole an imposing sense of stature.

Pleasingly, this ancient church also possesses a working crypt which is open to the public. This is an underground vault or cellar, often containing a chapel or significant burials and its architecture tends not to be updated seeing as its pillars bear some important weight and the one who meddles with them has greater courage than wisdom. St Mary's early, Norman architecture is therefore preserved in this low place, its solidity and strength offering an additional degree of assurance.

So we have a great church known for its height but also its depths. ‘Height’ and ‘depth’ provide an interesting contrast in at least four scriptural references, two of which come from the mighty pen of the Apostle Paul:

Romans 8:38-39: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and

Ephesians 3:17-19: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

What wonderful observations! Nothing high and nothing low may separate us from God’s love, and that love itself (or the gospel which is its outworking) may somehow be comprehended despite its gargantuan immensity and indeterminate enormity.