St. John the Evangelist Church, Great Stanmore is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church located in

Great Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The distri ...

(now simply Stanmore),

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England * Harrow, London, a town in London * Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) * ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. The name has been held by two churches: a red-brick church dating to 1632, now abandoned and in ruins, and its replacement, a stone church dating to 1850, which remains in use. Both buildings are separately Grade II* listed.

History

The original Stanmore church, located on Old Church Lane, was consecrated in the name of St. Mary. It remained the village church until 1632, when it was replaced. It was later taken down, although some faint images of its tower are known from landscapes of the area. As of the late twentieth century, a single tomb survived in the back garden of a local house. The 1632 church, located nearer to what had become the village centre, was paid for by merchant Sir John Wolstenholme and consecrated by

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

, then Bishop of London. It is in red brick. With growing population and changing artistic tastes, a third church building was constructed in 1850. The 1632 church was then partially demolished and became a ruin. The present church is built of

Kentish rag Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone in Kent, England, drawn from the geological sequence known as the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand. For millennia it has been quarried for use both locally and further afield. Geology Ragstone occurs i ...

and

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

, and was designed in an Early Decorated Gothic style by the Surrey architect

Henry Clutton Henry Clutton (19 March 1819 – 27 June 1893)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , was an English architect and designer. Life Henry Clutton was born on 19 March 1819, the son of Owen and Elizabeth Goodinge Clutton. He studied with Edwa ...

. It was built by the Lambeth builder George Myers. The church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Ewell had just been completed by Clutton and formed a prototype for St John's. The new church cost £7,855; £1,000 of which had been donated by its rector, Douglas Gordon. Gordon was the son of George Hamilton-Gordon, the Earl of Aberdeen, who became Prime Minister two years later; his lordship had also donated £2,000 and would ultimately be buried at the church. It was consecrated on 16 July 1850 by the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

, Edward Denison. The land on which the church stands was donated by Colonel Hamilton Tovey Tennent. The foundation stone for the new church was laid by the Earl of Aberdeen in the presence of

Queen Adelaide Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline; 13 August 1792 – 2 December 1849) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of Hanover from 26 June 1830 to 20 June 1837 as the wife of King W ...

, the widow of

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

. The former queen was living at

Bentley Priory Bentley Priory is an eighteenth to nineteenth century stately home and deer park in Stanmore on the northern edge of the Greater London area in the London Borough of Harrow. It was originally a medieval priory or cell of Augustinian Canons in ...

at the time, and this was her last public appearance. Queen Adelaide donated the font to the church and the east window was later dedicated to her memory. Burials at the church include the Earl of Aberdeen in a family vault, and writer

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

and his wife Lucy Agnes.

References

Bibliography

*Scott, Peter G. (Ed.) (2000) ''The Parish Church of Saint John the Evangelist'', Hartest Productions.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore 1850 establishments in England 19th-century Church of England church buildings Churches completed in 1850

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the List of highest points in London, highest point ...

Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Harrow Grade II* listed churches in London History of the London Borough of Harrow Stanmore George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen