Rev Catherine Cowie is set to become the first female rector of Beaulieu Abbey Church in Hampshire.

She will be inducted on 25 September, becoming the church’s 51st incumbent in its 495-year history.

Rev Cowie, whose previous ministry was based in Upper and Lower Slaughter in the Cotswolds, will move into the village rectory with her husband Alexander and their two children.

Beaulieu Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1203–1204 by King John and populated by 30 monks sent from the abbey of Cîteaux in France, the mother house of the Cistercian order. The Abbey Church was originally the building'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."