Members of the historic Beaulieu Abbey Church are preparing to welcome its first female rector.

The Rev Catherine Cowie will be inducted on September 25, she will become the church’s 51st incumbent in its 495-year history.

The Rev Cowie will move into the village rectory with her husband Alexander and their two young children.

As well as the abbey church she will be responsible for the churches at Exbury and East Boldre and the chapel at Buckler's Hard, all of which form part of the Beaulieu benefice.

She was previously part of the ministry team in a rural Cotswolds benefice that includes Upper and Lower Slaughter.

The Rev Cowie is the first female incumbent at the abbey church, which was originally the abbey's refectory.

Churchwarden Peter Melhuish said: "We are delighted that Catherine is coming to us.  Members of the three churches and the chapel of Bucklers Hard greatly look forward to working with her, as we send the Christian message even more widely throughout the benefice."

The abbey church is next to Palace House, ancestral home of the Montagu family since 1538.