St Mary's Church, Handsworth, also known as Handsworth Old Church, is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in Handsworth, Birmingham, England. Its ten-acre (4 hectare) grounds are contiguous with

Handsworth Park Handsworth Park (originally Victoria Park) is a park in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. It lies 15 minutes by bus from the centre of Birmingham and comprises 63 acres (25 hectares) of landscaped grass slopes, including a large boat ...

. It lies just off the

Birmingham Outer Circle West Midlands bus route 11, also known as the Birmingham Outer Circle, is a route that circumnavigates Birmingham via the A4040 apart from a small deviation via the B4182 and A4030 in Bearwood. It is mainly operated by National Express West Mi ...

, and south of a cutting housing the site of the former Handsworth Wood railway station. It is noteworthy as the resting place of famous progenitors of the industrial age, and has been described as the "

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

History

Despite the church's strong Industrial Revolution connections, the earliest

parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

for St Mary's (held at the

Library of Birmingham A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

) commences in 1558; while the first stone church building was erected on the site around 1160. This was a small and austere

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

structure, occupying about half of the present south aisle. The church's few surviving Norman features can be seen at the lower stages of the sandstone tower at the original church's east end. In its long history, St Mary's has undergone successive and opinionated reconstruction, especially in 1820 and 1870. As a

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

country church placed at the convergence of several cross country tracks, St Mary's became a significant part of the largest industrial city in Britain. In his 1851 ''History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire'', William White records:

Handsworth Church, St Mary, is picturesquely situated on the Hamstead road, about two miles (3 km) NNW of Birmingham. It is an ancient structure, partly rebuilt and enlarged in 1820, and has a tower with six bells, which like the other remaining parts of the ancient fabric, is in the decorated style of the time of
Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
. In the chancel are two recumbent
effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
of members of the Wyrley family, and an ancient piscena. On the south side, a neat groined chapel has been raised over the vault of the late celebrated engineer, James Watt, Esq, of whom there is in the chapel a beautiful white marble statue, by Chantrey. Among the numerous mural monuments in the church is one in memory of the late Matthew Boulton, Esq, of
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...
. The
rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...
is in the patronage of the Rev John Peel, DD, and the Rev George William Murray, MA, is the incumbent.

In 1894, part of the parish was taken to form a new parish for St Paul's Church, Hamstead. Handsworth parish was transferred from Staffordshire to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

in 1911. The celebrated artist

George Willis-Pryce George Willis-Pryce (1866–1949) was an English landscape painter who worked in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Several of his paintings are exhibited in galleries and museums, such as the Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery and ...

painted a view of the church from across a swan-lake at this time. The rectory to which White refers was demolished in the 1890s to make way for the large pond of

and at the start of the 21st century it is more accurate to describe St Mary's as situated on Hamstead Road in the Victorian suburb of Handsworth, in the Birmingham electoral ward of

Lozells and East Handsworth Lozells and East Handsworth was a ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a div ...

; and, since 1974, the

West Midlands county West Midlands is a metropolitan county in the West Midlands Region, England, with a 2021 population of 2,919,600, making it the second most populous county in England after Greater London. It was created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1 ...

Plans to end the neglect of the Churchyard

Since the 1970s, St Mary's churchyard has bordered on dereliction. It is a closed graveyard, with the apparently empty spaces to the south of the graveyard harbouring the final resting places of numerous paupers whose names are recorded in the Church Register but whose remains were interred without coffins or visible memorials, beyond the unevenness of the overgrown ground above them. The condition of the churchyard-—as a place that feels unsafe to some, whose memorials have become inaccessible to many, their inscriptions overgrown with ivy, headstones broken, unstable or unreachable through the surrounding undergrowth—-is recognised as a reproach to all who know the place. Even so, to those who enter the lime avenues long being kept clear of encroaching undergrowth, this wilderness contains mystery and beauty as well as melancholy. It is intended that planned improvements in the accessibility and appearance of the graveyard will be ones that restore it to respect in Handsworth, without lessening its serenity or its qualities as a haven for wildlife next to Handsworth Park. It is intended it should become a safer place, a more attractive place and a place of education for visitors of all ages. To this end there has been a marked increase in voluntary work in the graveyard while local community leaders have voted neighbourhood renewal funds that they hope will be matched by other regional agencies to implement a plan drawn up by the City Council's Landscape Practice Group to end years of neglect and bring about a rejuvenation similar to the great improvements they have funded in the neighbouring park between 2000 and 2006. St Mary's then incumbent was Canon Brian A. Hall who in March 2006 became chairman of a new group called The Friends of St Mary's Churchyard, which aimed "to be a focus for future hopes for the integrity of St Mary's Churchyard as a special place" – special not only for the respect accorded to the dead which ought to apply to all graveyards, but also because of the association of the church and its grounds with the founding fathers of the industrial age, and more recently with two important figures in the development of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, William McGregor, Director of

Aston Villa F.C. Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Pa ...

, who organised the founding meeting of the

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on 22 March 1888, and

George Ramsay George Burrell Ramsay (4 March 1855 – 7 October 1935) was a Scottish footballer and manager. Ramsay was the secretary and manager of Aston Villa Football Club during the club's 'Golden Age'. As a player he was the first Aston Villa captain ...

, whose headstone reads "Founder of Aston Villa".

Boulton, Watt & Murdoch memorials

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

lived in Handsworth and is chiefly remembered as the inventor of the separate condenser, the greatest single improvement ever made to the steam engine. In 1774,

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engine ...

applied his engineering talent to realising Watt's idea. It was to follow that Boulton and Watt became one of the most famous partnerships in industrial history.

William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...

, another engineer, perfected gas lighting and gave the world the high-pressure steam engine, and became a partner of Boulton and Watt. All three are remembered by

monuments A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

in the core of the church. On the north wall of the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

is a marble bust of Matthew Boulton, set in a circular opening above two

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

, one holding an engraving of the

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory () was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853. Be ...

. This was commissioned by Boulton's son, from the sculptor

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...

. On the wall opposite, below a pointed arch, is a stone bust of William Murdoch, spelled with a 'ck' — different from his own spelling. James Watt was buried in the grounds of St Mary's, but expansion of the church placed his tomb inside the church. To the south of the sanctuary, in an austere and serene space built especially for it – The James Watt Memorial Chapel – is a marble statue of Watt by

Francis Legatt Chantrey Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...

, who regarded his statue of Watt as his favourite.

Conrad Küchler Conrad may refer to: People * Conrad (name) Places United States * Conrad, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Conrad, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Conrad, Iowa, a city * Conrad, Montana, a city * Conrad Glacier, Washingto ...

, a German refugee and engraver who worked for Boulton at his

Soho Mint Soho Mint was created by Matthew Boulton in 1788 in his Soho Manufactory () in Handsworth, West Midlands, England. A mint was erected at the manufactory containing eight machines, to his own patent design, driven by steam engine, each capable of ...

and who designed several British coins, was also buried in the churchyard.

Genealogical records

Under the aegis of the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry (BMSGH),"Monumental Inscriptions for Handsworth, Birmingham St Mary's Parish Church
Hunimex.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012 who sought it from the Handsworth Historical Society and the congregation of the church, a working group of the Handsworth Historical Society, chaired by Roy Lancelott, worked between March 1980 and March 1984 to create a record of every monument in St Mary's churchyard. This record comprises six volumes, titled ''Monumental Inscriptions, St Mary's Church Handsworth Birmingham''. Photocopies of this record, which contains sketches of various headstones and detailed maps showing their position in the graveyard, are held by the BMSGH Library (Fiche number 11054), Margaret Street, Birmingham, the

Society of Genealogists The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is a UK-based educational charity, founded in 1911Fowler, S School of Advanced Study, University of London. Date unknown. Retrieved 2011-10-30. to "promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge ...

(London), the Archives & Collections section of the

, and Staffordshire Record Office. Brian Hall observes this piece of research has "brought to light once again the fascinating social history of this side of the emerging City of Birmingham during the Victorian and Edwardian period". Fewer than a handful of monuments are now visited by relatives of those interred, and three simple headstones commemorating 14 soldiers buried during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

are tended annually by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

.CWGC Cemetery Report, details from casualty record
/ref>

Musical connections

Webster Booth Webster Booth (21 January 1902 – 21 June 1984) was an English tenor, best remembered as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler. He was also one of the finest tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio soloist. He was a chorister ...

(1902–1984), largely remembered today as the duettist partner of

Anne Ziegler Anne Ziegler (22 June 1910 – 13 October 2003) was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musica ...

, joined his two older brothers in the choir of St Mary's. He was considered to be one of the finest British tenors of his generation. Harry Freeman, the popular

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

performer, was buried in the churchyard in 1922.Freeman
on the

Grand Order of Water Rats The Grand Order of Water Rats is a British entertainment industry fraternity and charitable organisation based in London. Founded in 1889 by the music hall comedians Joe Elvin and Jack Lotto, the order is known for its high-profile membership a ...

website

Sporting connections

William McGregor (13 April 1846 – 20 December 1911) was the founding member of the

, and one-time manager and Club Administrator (then day Chairman), of

Aston Villa FC Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Pa ...

References

*Go to reference 1054 a

and under 'BIRMINGHAM Monumental Inscriptions (fiche) and Photographs of Churches' are details of 'St Mary's, Handsworth' held by Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry * Allen Edward Everitt, Everitt, Allen E. (1876) ''Handsworth Church and its Surroundings, Birmingham''. E. C. Osborne * Greenoak, Francesca (1985) ''God's Acre: the flowers and animals of the parish churchyard''. London: Orbis * Tompkins, J. C. H., ''Rev.'' (date?) ''The Parish Church of St Mary, Handsworth: a Brief History and Guide''. (26-page booklet published by and available from the Parish) * Worpole, Ken (1997) ''The Cemetery in the City''. Comedia

External links

{{Commons category, St Mary's, Handsworth
St Mary's Parish WebsiteNeighbouring St Andrew's Church, and the Birmingham Anglican Diocese See link to "OUR FRIENDS"Handsworth Parish details from UK & Ireland Genealogy website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928141510/http://www.search.digitalhandsworth.org.uk/engine/search/default_hndlr.asp?txtKeywords=marys&x=0&y=0 'Digital Handsworth' archive Tourist attractions in Birmingham, West Midlands Handsworth Handsworth Handsworth Thomas Rickman buildings

Saint Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...