The new vicar at St Bees says she’s excited to become part of the community after taking her first service this week.

The Reverend Becky Gibbs was licensed as the village’s new vicar on Friday night and is already feeling at home.

The 41-year-old moved into the vicarage a fortnight ago with her husband Phil and son Joshua, who has started at the village primary school.

And she said she’s extremely impressed with her experience so far.

She said: “St Bees is lovely, the people are very friendly and the location is very beautiful.

“I’ve been meeting people around the village and they’re all very friendly and I’ve been given a very warm welcome.

“I’m really excited and looking forward to my time here. I feel that I’m very much supported by the team and I think it’s going to be a really good place to minister.”

Mrs Gibbs trained as a primary school teacher and has worked as an assistant chaplain in a boarding school in the Cotswolds, a children’s worker at a Macclesfield church and was the curate in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, before moving to Cumbria.

She will complete the last three months of her curacy in St Bees and become priest-in-charge next July.

The village priory has been without a vicar for more than a year after the Reverend Clifford Swartz left when the public school closed.

Following Mr Swartz’s departure, a ministry team of retired clergy and two lay readers have been carrying out church duties.

Mrs Gibbs will also become associate priest of the Egremont and Crosslacon Mission Community.

She said her hobbies are more artistic as she enjoys all forms of dance, card making and scrapbooking.