Popular former Newmarket vicar the rev Max Osborne thrilled to be back in area

A former Newmarket vicar is moving back to the area to take up a new role as priest in charge of five village churches.

Canon Max Osborne, who was vicar at All Saints’ Church for 20 years and also rural dean of Mildenhall up to 2019, said he was thrilled to be taking over at Holy Trinity Church, in Bottisham, where he will be formally installed later this month.

His duties will also take in the other churches in what is officially known at the Anglesey Benefice. These are three St Mary’s, at Quy, Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior and St James’ Church, Lode.

The five parishes have been without a vicar since the Rev Sue Giles retired in January 2023 after 40 years in the ministry, 10 of them at Bottisham.

Since leaving All Saints’, Mr Osborne has been the priest in charge of the Horringer Benefice, which includes the parishes of Brockley, Hawstead, Nowton, Westley and Whepstead as well as St Leonard’s Church, Horringer, which sits immediately outside the gates of the Ickworth estate.

With his move to Bottisham, Mr Osborne will also be switching from the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich to the Diocese of Ely.

His installation, on April 19, at 7.30pm, will be conducted by the Right Rev Dr Dagmar Winter, Bishop of Huntingdon, and acting Bishop of Ely.

Mr Osborne, his wife Angie, son David and eight-year-old grandson Noah, will be moving to a new vicarage in Bottisham following the recent sale of the former vicarage, an imposing five-bedroom property which was on the market for £850,000.

They also have a daughter Jess, a nursing sister at Royal Papworth hospital, who lives in Soham with her husband Alex.