St Mary's was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church in Whittall Street,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England.

History

St. Mary's Church was built in 1774, under an Act of 1772, on Catharine Street (later renamed Whittall Street), then on the northern edge of the town of Birmingham, as a chapel of ease to

St Martin in the Bull Ring St Martin in the Bull Ring is a Church of England parish church in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It is the original parish church of Birmingham and stands between the Bull Ring Shopping Centre and the markets. The church is ...

. The building was designed by

Joseph Pickford Joseph Pickford (bap. 6 October 1734 – 13 July 1782) was an English architect that mostly worked within the English county of Derbyshire, and was one of the leading provincial architects in the reign of George III. The house he designed for h ...

. It was named to mark the donation of the land on which it stood, and £1,000 of its £4,500 building costs, by Mary Weaman. Two years after opening, part of a gallery collapsed during a service, but the incident did not result in any injuries.

Cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

columns were added, to support the rebuilt galleries. William Hutton, in the second edition of his ''An History of Birmingham'' (1783) wrote: In 1786

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

attended a service and heard a sermon by the first incumbent Edward Burn. A parish was assigned to St. Mary's in 1841 out of

. In 1859, 15 women (of a total of 19), who had died in an explosion at Messrs Pursall and Philips Percussion Cap Manufactory, also in Whittall Street, were interred in a single vault in the church. Structural problems were discovered in 1866 and the tower and spire were subsequently rebuilt in a Gothic style. A further rebuilding took place some time later. In 1925 the church was closed pending demolition, for the expansion of

Birmingham General Hospital Birmingham General Hospital was a teaching hospital in Birmingham, England, founded in 1779 and closed in the mid-1990s. History Summer Lane In 1765, a committee for a proposed hospital, formed by John Ash (physician), John Ash and suppo ...

. The parish was united with that of Bishop Ryder Church. The proceeds of the sale of the land went to build St Mary's Church, at

Pype Hayes Pype Hayes is a modern housing estate area and council ward in the east of the Erdington district of Birmingham. It was within the Tyburn, West Midlands, Tyburn ward until 2018. Covering the postcodes of B24 and B76. Etymology The name of the a ...

. Its registers of baptisms (1774–1812) and burials (1779–1812) are at St. Martin's. Its silver communion service is at St. Mary's, except for two flagons which are in the collection of

Birmingham Assay Office The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, is located in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The development of a silver industry in 18th century Birmingham was hampered by the legal requirement that items ...

. A tablet commemorating William Thompson, formerly in the church, and now in St Martin in the Bull Ring, reads: The site is now occupied by Waterfall House. A thoroughfare at the north-west side of the site is still called St Mary's Row.

Vicars

*John Riland ???? - 1810 * Edward Burn 1810 - 1837 *John Casebow Barrett 1837 - 1880 *John Stanley Owen 1881 - 1886 *J. Foster Pegg 1886 - 1892 *Herbert Aylwin 1900 - 1905 (formerly vicar of Christ Church, Silloth) *H.M. Foyl 1905 - 1910 *W.F.W. Hunter 1910 - 1925

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birmingham Church of England church buildings in Birmingham, West Midlands Churches completed in 1774

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

Buildings and structures demolished in 1925