A beautiful and ancient active church, St. Mary-at-Latton once served a tiny village and the medieval manor of Mark Hall, before the present new town was built around it. When the town planner Sir Frederick Gibberd designed the oldest part of the present-day Harlow, he deliberately left a huge expanse of green space, including many ancient trees, all around this beautiful church, giving a genuine sense of its rural heritage. It has features that have survived both Reformation excesses and Puritan-inspired vandalism. It has an interesting modern ecumenical history, since the churchyard houses the family plot of Roman Catholic philanthropists and distillers the Gilbeys, who counted among their number the inspirational writer and cleric, Mgr. Gilbey.