St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's Church is Emmerdale's village church, located on Church Lane. The original church claims to have been built in Viking times, serving the parish of Beckindale for centuries. In June 1882 the church was gutted by fire, started by a local choirboy. The church once again suffered a fire in 2002, this time burnt down by local vet Zoe Tate who was sectioned under the mental health act following the incident. It was decided not to rebuild the church this time and instead it's location was changed to the old village school and former tea rooms buildings. In late 2008, St. Mary's was under threat of closure due to the falling number of parishioners attending services. The community rallied round to stop this and formed a choir and entered into a regional competition in the hope that winning would save the church. The church was saved when the new owners of Home Farm, the Wylde's bought the church for £500,000 and gifted it to the community.

Many of the names in the parish registers are from the Sugden, Pearson, Verney and Dingle families.

The church's current vicar is Ashley Thomas.

Vicars

 * Edward Ruskin (1960-1975)
 * Bob Matthews (1975-1977)
 * William Hockley (1977)
 * Donald Hinton (1977-1989)
 * Ashley Thomas (1996-2012, 2014- )
 * Jude Watson (2013-2014)
 * Harriet Finch (2014)

Weddings
St. Mary's Church has been the location of many Emmerdale weddings over the years. Here are the weddings that took place here:
 * Janie Harker and Frank Blakey (1973)
 * Linda Glover and Biff Fowler (1996)
 * Lisa Clegg and Zak Dingle (1998)
 * Kelly Windsor and Roy Glover (1999)
 * Gloria Weaver and Eric Pollard (2002)
 * Katie Addyman and Andy Sugden (2004)
 * Diane Blackstock and Jack Sugden (2004)
 * Alice Wilson and Sam Dingle (2006)
 * Donna Windsor and Marlon Dingle (2006)
 * Viv Windsor and Bob Hope (2006)
 * Rosemary Sinclair and Tom King (2006)
 * Val Lambert and Eric Pollard (2008)
 * Nicola De Souza and Jimmy King (2010)
 * Alicia Harding and David Metcalfe (2013)
 * Katie Addyman and Andy Sugden (2014)
 * Debbie Dingle and Pete Barton (2015)

Failed weddings/jiltings
Not all weddings in Emmerdale end happily ever after. In fact, some don't happen at all. Like these:
 * Tina Dingle and Luke McAllister (1995)
 * Lisa Clegg and Albert Dingle (1997)
 * Kathy Glover and Biff Fowler (1999)
 * Nicola Blackstock and Carlos Diaz (2001)
 * Tricia Fisher and Marlon Dingle (2002)
 * Charity Tate and Tom King (2005)
 * Kelly Windsor and Jimmy King (2007)
 * Chas Dingle and Carl King (2010)
 * Ali Spencer and Ruby Haswell (2014)

Funerals
Sadly, many Emmerdale residents have lost their lives. And St. Mary's Church has been home to many of the funerals.
 * To be added.
 * Jacob Sugden (1972)
 * Sharon Crossthwaite (1973)
 * Trash (1973)
 * Peggy Skilbeck (1973)
 * Alice Dingle (2006)
 * Tom King (2006)
 * Jack Sugden (2009)
 * Shadrach Dingle (2010)
 * Terry Woods (2011)
 * Jackson Walsh (2011)
 * John Barton (2012)
 * Carl King (2012)
 * Alan Turner (2013)
 * Gennie Walker (2013)
 * Gemma Andrews (2014)
 * Donna Windsor (2014)
 * Katie Sugden (2015)

Christenings

 * Sam Skilbeck (1973)
 * Sally Skilbeck (1973)
 * Samuel Skilbeck (1983)
 * Joseph Tate (1995)
 * Belle Dingle (1999)
 * Kirk Daggert (2001)
 * Gabby Thomas (2002)
 * Noah Dingle (2004)
 * Sarah Sugden Jr. (2005)
 * Cathy Hope (2007)
 * Heath Hope (2007)
 * Arthur Thomas (2007)
 * Angelica King (2010)
 * Leo Goskirk (2011)
 * Molly Sharma (2013)
 * April Windsor (2014)
 * Moses Dingle (2015)

Events
To be added.
 * 2009: Set on fire by Sally Spode, trapping Laurel Dingle inside and then calling the fire brigade.

Choir
St. Mary's Church used to have a choir in, consisting of many villagers, including:

1970s:

 * Rev. Edward Ruskin
 * Alison Gibbons
 * Henry Wilks
 * Ethel Ainsworth

2000s:
There was also:
 * Laurel Dingle (who thought the choir was good)
 * Edna Birch (who wanted to sing it traditionally)
 * Lisa Dingle
 * Val Pollard
 * Alan Turner
 * Doug Potts
 * Sam Dingle
 * Nicola King
 * Bob Hope
 * Rodney Blackstock
 * Rodney Blackstock
 * Gennie Walker
 * Leyla Harding
 * Brenda Walker, who made tea and biscuits for the choir at practices.
 * David Metcalfe, who came to watch Nicola King, his girlfriend of the time, at practices.