Seats, seat rents, pews, the union and disjunction of parishes and formation of district parishes are of secular jurisdiction.
Speak the word of God over the empty pews.
A little below the abbey is the parish church of St Mary, originally Norman, and retaining traces of the first building; owing to a variety of alterations at different periods, and the erection of high wooden pews and galleries, its appearance is more remarkable than beautiful.
In 1856 it was restored by Edward Browning, who designed the beautifully carved oak pews.
In the 1880s it became common for Anglican churches to replace the box pews with rows of open pews.