A vicar who conducted her daughter's wedding more than 30 years ago came out of retirement to perform the same duty for her granddaughter - at the same west Dorset church.

The Rev Canon Nerissa Jones presided over the nuptials as her granddaughter Millie Forrest married Toby Williams-Ellis at St Mary's Church, Powerstock.

Back in July 1988, Canon Jones – then a newly-ordained deacon – conducted her daughter's wedding, Millie's mum Anna, in the same church.

It was an event which was subsequently reported in the Dorset Echo, below.

Dorset Echo:

Canon Jones, who was one of the first women ever to be ordained in the Church of England and defied death threats to campaign for the ordination of female priests, held posts in London and the West Midlands before returning to her native Dorset to become Priest in Charge of Askerswell, Loders, Powerstock and Symondsbury.

She was made an MBE in 2001 for services to the community in a run-down part of Coventry.

She retired in 2010 but the current vicar of the parish, Rev Chris Grasske, kindly allowed her to come out of retirement to conduct the special service when Millie got married.

Millie, who wore the same wedding dress her mum wore when she got married, said getting her grandma to conduct the service was the first thing she talked about to Toby when he proposed.

Millie, who grew up in West Milton, met Toby, who is from Cerne Abbas, when they were both working in London.

They moved to West Milton this year where Millie's family lives. As the pandemic forced people to start working from home, the couple decided they would much rather be in Dorset.

Millie works as a producer for a creative agency and Toby is a freelance visual effects artist.

Millie said: "We've absolutely loved living back home in Dorset; growing veg, seeing more of family, being close to the sea and taking our dog Ernest on long walks."

She added: "Our original plan was to have about 150 guests at the wedding but we obviously needed to scale it right back, so it was just 13 immediate family members on the day. The whole thing became very much a family event that everyone played a big part in - Nerissa's sermon was deeply personal, my sister made dresses, the feast was all homegrown, almost everyone gave a speech.

Millie said after they were married they walked back over the fields to celebrate in West Milton.

She said: "We were both so delighted that Nerissa could marry us. It meant so much to us both.

"Nerissa is a hugely impressive person, as well as being a brilliant granny."