The villages of
Stoke St. Mary, Thurlbear and Orchard Portman, Somerset, England.

Of the few memorials which the church contains, the most interesting is the stained glass of the west window (maker unknown). It was placed there by Major William Surtees Altham in memory of his wife Henrietta Moulton Barrett who died at Stoke Court, Stoke St. Mary, in November 1860. Henrietta Moulton Barrett's life mirrored in many ways that of her elder sister, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, both women growing to middle age under the influence of a father who forbade all thoughts of marriage on threat of disinheritance. Part of the window depicts the story of Rachel and Jacob, a subject evidently chosen by Major Eltham as a parable of his long courtship and his wife's early death. Their graves are in the south-east corner of the churchyard.

Description
Description

Photographs by Jenny, sister of Terry Rowles of Winterwell, Thurlbear.

Description