On Sunday the church of St Thomas in Salisbury marked the coming Translation of St Thomas Becket Day early with its annual Rose Petal Sunday.

The church’s patronal festival was kept with a choral Eucharist of St Thomas presided over by new curate Carly Taylor who was celebrating her first Mass following ordination at the nearby cathedral.

At the end there was a procession out of the church into St Thomas’s Square to see Carly Taylor bless the city from the tower before rose petals were thrown from the castellated top to blow across Salisbury.

The Salisbury church was dedicated to St Thomas Becket around 1220, the year of the translation of his body from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to the shrine upstairs.

The church’s great attraction is a doom painting dating from 1470 and best seen at this time of the year when light shines from the west window.

The new Rector of St Thomas Salisbury, Canon Jo Haine, will be installed on Our Lady’s Birthday 8 September.