There can be few stranger settings for a medieval church than this, for the small graveyard of St Mary is surrounded on three sides by the Thrigby Wildlife Gardens. We got here at 5pm on an early Spring afternoon; in many a country graveyard, you might expect to hear a blackbird piping, or perhaps the last thrush of the day, but here the graveyard was full of the sounds of Indian cranes, scolding me for standing with my back to their enclosure. If you take a photograph from the north-east corner you might have an even bigger surprise, because this is near to the tigers. To all intents and purposes, this church has been abandoned. It still hosts one service a year, which is the minimum required by law, but the tower is cordoned off by a safety fence, and plastic piping sticks out bizzarely to try and keep the damp from the walls.

We couldn't get inside. The Vicar of neighbouring Filby told us that there was a key at the ticket office of the gardens, but the people there said they hadn't had one for months. In any case, I'm not sure that there is a lot to see, because this is one of those churches that underwent a wholesale restoration under the eye of Herbert Green. The tower is the best survival, pretty much all of a 14th century piece, but the windows in the nave are worth a second glance because the tracery is wooden, suggesting 18th century replacements. The chancel is pretty much all Victorian, I think.

Hardly anybody lives in Thrigby, and those that do are mostly closer to Filby church. The building is probably not significant enough for the Churches Conservation Trust to take it on. Perhaps the best solution would be to hand it over to the wildlife gardens and let them fill it with monkeys or something, which would at least be entertaining.

Simon Knott, April 2006