Rector says goodbye to West Berkshire

Final service on Sunday for rector of the benefice of West Woodhay with Enborne, Hamstead Marshall, Inkpen and Combe

A POPULAR West Berkshire rector is preparing to give her final service in the district on Sunday (July 3).

The rector of the benefice of West Woodhay with Enborne, Hamstead Marshall, Inkpen and Combe, and priest-in-charge of Kintbury with Avington, the Rev. Julie Ramsbottom, will move to Finchampstead later this summer to become the priest-in-charge and rector designate for two parish churches.

Her final service in West Berkshire will be at the Church of St Michael and All Angels in Inkpen on Sunday and Mrs Ramsbottom said she would be sad to say goodbye to her parishioners.

She said: “I adore this place and love the people here, but the time is right to move on.”

Mrs Ramsbottom added that she had thoroughly enjoyed her 14 years in West Berkshire, but said she was looking forward to the new challenge of uniting St Mary and St John's Church, California, and St James' Church, Finchampstead, as one parish.

The appointment was announced earlier this year by the Archdeacon of Berkshire, Norman Russell, who described Mrs Ramsbottom as a much-loved and well respected Rector across the communities she serves, adding that she had been “quite exceptional” in her leadership of a raft of small village parishes in West Berkshire.

Mrs Ramsbottom is due to take up her new post at a service of licensing in August.