About Church Of St Mary, Staines
St Mary's, Staines, is a Church of England parish church in the town and parish of Staines-upon-Thames, in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey and the Greater London Urban Area. The parish is in the Archdeaconry of Middlesex in the Diocese of London. The church building is on a rise not far from the Thames at the west end of the town. It has been a Grade II* listed building since 11 August 1952. HistoryHistory of the buildingThe mound on which the church stands commands views over its wide spur of land between the discharge of the Colne and the Thames. This suggests that the first church was built on the site of an older, pre-Christian place of worship. Celtic remains have been found at Church Island 200m south of the church, which before the navigability of the Thames was accessible in times of low flow by a ford. There is a misconception that the first church on this site was built in AD 685. The earliest written evidence of a church building is dated 1179, but it may have existed by 1100. The oldest surviving part of the church is the tower, on which a plaque says it was designed by Inigo Jones and built in 1631. A large part of the body of the church collapsed in the 1820s, so a new chancel was begun after a private Act of Parliament was passed allowing what remained of the old church to be blown up. In 1827 the last remnants of the earlier St Mary's were destroyed. The present ed nave was designed by John Burges Watson and building began the following year. In 1885 a semicircular apse with three windows was added to the chancel and the organ was moved to its current position. After the Second World War the stone pinnacles of the tower were removed as unsafe, possibly due to a bomb landing in Wraysbury Road during the war.
Church Of St Mary, Staines Description
St Mary's, Staines, is a Church of England parish church in the town and parish of Staines-upon-Thames, in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey and the Greater London Urban Area. The parish is in the Archdeaconry of Middlesex in the Diocese of London. The church building is on a rise not far from the Thames at the west end of the town. It has been a Grade II* listed building since 11 August 1952. HistoryHistory of the buildingThe mound on which the church stands commands views over its wide spur of land between the discharge of the Colne and the Thames. This suggests that the first church was built on the site of an older, pre-Christian place of worship. Celtic remains have been found at Church Island 200m south of the church, which before the navigability of the Thames was accessible in times of low flow by a ford. There is a misconception that the first church on this site was built in AD 685. The earliest written evidence of a church building is dated 1179, but it may have existed by 1100. The oldest surviving part of the church is the tower, on which a plaque says it was designed by Inigo Jones and built in 1631. A large part of the body of the church collapsed in the 1820s, so a new chancel was begun after a private Act of Parliament was passed allowing what remained of the old church to be blown up. In 1827 the last remnants of the earlier St Mary's were destroyed. The present ed nave was designed by John Burges Watson and building began the following year. In 1885 a semicircular apse with three windows was added to the chancel and the organ was moved to its current position. After the Second World War the stone pinnacles of the tower were removed as unsafe, possibly due to a bomb landing in Wraysbury Road during the war.