St Mary's, Staines, is a

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

in the town and parish of

Staines-upon-Thames Staines-upon-Thames, also known simply as Staines, is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and River Colne, Hertfordshire, Colne. ...

, in the Spelthorne borough of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and the

Greater London Urban Area The Greater London Built-up Area, or Greater London Urban Area, is a conurbation in south-east England that constitutes the continuous urban sprawl of London, and includes surrounding adjacent urban towns as defined by the Office for National Sta ...

. The parish is in the

Archdeaconry of Middlesex The Archdeacon of Middlesex is a senior cleric in the Church of England, co-responsible for the Archdeaconry of "Middlesex", which mirrors the "Kensington" episcopal area of the Diocese of London — the other person responsible being the Bis ...

in the

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames, covering and all or part of 17 London boroughs. This corresponds almost exactly to the historic county of ...

. The church building is on an unusual rise against the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

at the west end of the town. It has been a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

since 11 August 1952.

History

History of the building

The mound on which the church stands commands views over its wide spur of land between the discharge of the

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. The town is northeast of Nelson, Lancashire, Nelson, northeast of Burnley and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. The ...

and the

. This suggests that the first church was built on the site of an older, pre-Christian place of worship.

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

remains have been found at Church Island 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 Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

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 local act of Parliament, the ( 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. cvii), was passed allowing the remains of the old church to be removed. The present

battlement A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

ed nave was designed by John Burges Watson and building began the following year. In 1885 a semicircular

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

with three windows was added to the chancel and the organ was moved to its current position. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the stone pinnacles of the tower were removed as unsafe, possibly due to a bomb landing in Wraysbury Road during the war.

Fiscal history of the church until the commutation of the tithes

The

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

, consisting after 1217–18 solely of tithes, was appropriated in 1222 to the guest-house and infirmary of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. In 1225 and until after 1291 it belonged to its "hosteler" alone. Its value, including its chapels of Ashford and

Laleham Laleham is a village on the River Thames, in the borough of Spelthorne, about west of central London, England. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Laleham is downriver from Staines-upon-Thames a ...

, was £46 13s. 4d. in 1291 per annum. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century the rectory passed into lay hands, and from 1725 to 1844 belonged to the Coussmaker family of Westwood, Surrey. In 1842, when Staines parishioners commuted (ended the main financial liability for and converted) the

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s, the great tithes of Staines alone (excluding the lesser tithes and the two old, seceded parishes) were worth £365 (per annum) which was compensated to the Coussmakers. As in most vicarages, widely (across the parish) the

chancel repair liability Chancel repair liability is a legal obligation on a small number of property owners in England and Wales to pay for certain repairs to a church, often the local parish church. Where people purchase property within land that was once rectorial (pa ...

on the parish's landowners has been since, technically, apportioned.

Items of interest

Stained glass

The Trident Memorial Window commemorates the 1972 Staines air disaster, the worst air disaster in Britain prior to the

Pan Am Flight 103 Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...

bombing over

Lockerbie Lockerbie (, ) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, located in south-western Scotland. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town had an estimated population of in . The town came to international attention in December 1988 when ...

in Scotland. The then

Bishop of Kensington The Bishop of Kensington is an episcopal title used by an area bishop of the Church of England Diocese of London, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The Bishop of Kensington is responsible for a part of Greater London, including Kensington, ...

Michael Colclough Michael John Colclough (born 29 December 1944) is a British retired Anglican bishop. He served as area Bishop of Kensington in the Diocese of London (1996–2008) then canon pastor of St Paul's Cathedral, London (2008–2013). Early life and ed ...

, presided over a service blessing the window at its installation in 2004. One of the 19th-century windows in the apse was given by the

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

and

Crown Princess A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown princ ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

(the latter being the Princess Royal,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's eldest daughter). They gave it in memory of the governess to the Prussian royal children, Augusta Maria Byng, who once lived in Binbury Row.

Organ

The

Brindley & Foster Brindley & Foster was a pipe organ builder based in Sheffield who flourished between 1854 and 1939. Background The business was established by Charles Brindley in 1854. He was joined by Albert Healey Foster in 1871 and the company acquired the ...

organ, thought to date from the early 1870s, was dismantled for restoration in 1973. After examining the mechanical action, the restorers, Bishop and Sons, determined that the organ was built before 1830. However, an account in a church magazine from the 1870s indicates that the organ was installed in the church in 1871. It is thus probable that Brindley & Foster took the instrument over from its original builder, enlarged and renovated it. The organ was removed in 1885 from its original location in the gallery at the back of the nave and re-installed on the ground behind the choir stalls.

Bells

St Mary's has a ring of eight bells, all cast by the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. Richard Phelps cast six of the bells in 1734. In 1829 Thomas II Mears cast the treble and second bells and recast the tenor. The five surviving Phelps bells are listed for preservation by the Council for the Care of Churches. A 1999 survey revealed cracks in three of the bells, so in 2002 Whites of Appleton removed them from the tower, repaired the cracked bells and then sent them all to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for re-tuning. Thereafter the bells were rehung with new wheels, headstocks and other fittings, and reconsecrated by Bishop Edward Holland at a service that same year.

Tombs

Notable people buried at St Mary's include: *Augusta Maria Byng, governess to the future

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...

and the other children of the

and

of Prussia. * François-Henri, duc d'Harcourt, representative of the exiled

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

to the United Kingdom and member of the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

* Letitia, Lady Lade, beauty, horsewoman, and mistress of highwayman Jack Rann and the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...

*The chest tomb of George Hawkins (died 1761) and his wife Elizabeth is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. *

George Gammon Adams George Gammon Adams (21 April 1821 – 14 March 1898; sometimes spelled George Gamon Adams or George Gannon Adams) was an English portrait sculptor and medallist,St Mary's
– official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys Staines 19th-century Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in Surrey Diocese of London Grade II* listed churches in Surrey

Saint Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

Churches on the Thames