Virtual Tour of St Mary's Church, Eaton Bray - Pages 51-52

By then the church was seriously dilapidated, and was described in scathing terms in an architect's report in the following year, but the economy of the parish, based mainly on straw plaiting and duck farming, was seriously depressed, and an aging man would not have seen much chance of raising the money needed.

Whyley's commitment to his parishioners is exemplified by his providing the first school from his own resources, and the registers record the heart-breaking tally of funerals of young children he conducted during the scarlet-fever epidemic of the 1860s.

His successor undertook the first restoration of the church, mentioned above, but it is to the Revd Edwin Sutton that we owe the fine condition of the church today, who raised

and spent over £3,500 in the years between 1890 and 1916 – his achievement is recognized on the plaque recording the erection of the new organ in 1923, and in the memorial to a local "builder and farmer", Jeffrey Sharrett, who undertook much of the restoration work.

The Parish Roll of Honour hangs on the wall of the Lady Chapel.