St Mary with St Richard, Northolt facts for kids

Quick facts for kids St Mary the Virgin
St Mary the Virgin
Denomination	Church of England
Website	www.northolt.org
History
Dedication	Blessed Virgin Mary
Administration
Parish	St Mary with St Richard
Deanery	Ealing (West)
Archdeaconry	Northolt
Diocese	London
Province	Canterbury

St Mary the Virgin is a very old Anglican church in Northolt, London Borough of Ealing. It was built way back in the 13th century, around the year 1290! You can find it on a hill next to Belvue Park, which used to be the spot for a manor house from the 1400s. Both of these looked over the old village of Northolt.

This church is one of London's smallest. Its main part, called the nave, is about 15 yards (13.7 meters) long and 8 yards (7.3 meters) wide. Over the years, the church grew bigger. A special area for the choir, called the chancel, was added in 1521. The tall bell tower with its pointy top was built in the 1500s. Later, in 1703, a balcony (gallery) was put in at the back of the church. Strong supports, called buttresses, were added in 1718 to help stop the church from sliding down the hill. Inside, some of the wooden beams are still the originals, and the church bells are from the 1600s. The church was built using different materials like clunch (a type of limestone), flint, and ironstone. The fancy parts around the doors and windows are made from Reigate Stone.

St Mary's has been an important church for a long time. From the 1200s until 1873, the Bishop of London was actually its main priest, called the rector. They would usually have another priest, called a vicar, do the day-to-day work. In more recent times, St Mary's made history by being the first Anglican church to have a female rector, Rev. Pamela Walker.

Today, St Mary's is one of two churches in its local area. The other church, St Richard's, is much bigger and more modern. Both churches share the same main priest (rector). This priest leads the Sunday morning service at St Mary's, helps with Sunday School, and then leads another service at St Richard's in the evening.

What's Inside the Church?

The small entrance porch on the south side was partly rebuilt in 1909. A room for the priests, called a vestry, was added in 1945. The main part of the church, the nave, mostly dates from the 1300s, but it has some older pieces from the late 1200s. The roofs of the chancel and nave were rebuilt in the early 1500s. The square bell tower, which has wooden boards and a pointed spire, is also from that time.

Strong supports, called buttresses, were added in the 1700s, including the very large brick ones at the west end. Like many old churches, St Mary's was "restored" in the 1800s, meaning it was repaired and rebuilt quite a bit.

Special Items to See

• Font: The eight-sided stone font, used for baptisms, is from the 1300s. It has simple carvings on its bowl, and its wooden cover is dated 1624.
• Bells: There are four bells from the early 1600s. The smallest bell, called the sanctus bell, was made in 1626.
• Gallery: A wooden balcony, or gallery, was built across the west end of the nave in 1703. It has three sections and is supported by round columns. This gallery was used by singers and servants.
• Paintings and Carvings: On the north wall of the chancel, there's a painting from the 1700s showing the "Adoration of the Magi" (the wise men visiting baby Jesus). On the east wall of the nave, you can see a wooden carving from the 1600s of the Stuart royal family's coat of arms.
• Memorials: You can also find brass plaques with figures of Henry Rowdell (who died in 1452) and Isaiah Bures (a vicar from 1596–1610). There's also a 1500s brass plaque for the Gifford family. Stone tablets on the walls remember vicars and members of the Shadwell family from the 1700s and 1800s.

The church also has some old silver items, like a plate and cup from 1702. The church records, called registers, go back a long way. They show baptisms from 1560, marriages from 1575, and burials from 1583.

A Look at the Church's Past

We don't know much about the church's religious history before the 1600s. Some of the early vicars (priests) seemed to work in more than one church at a time. In 1302, a vicar here was even kicked out of the church for not paying taxes to the Pope!

Changes Over Time

During the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1600s, there were big changes in England's churches. Some people at St Mary's didn't like these changes. For example, George Palmer, who was vicar from 1638 to 1643, lost his job because he spoke against the government and joined the King's army. The people of Northolt really liked him. They didn't like the next vicar, Robert Malthus (1643–1661), and even asked Cromwell to remove him.

After 1661, the church had some problems. The vicar, William Brabourne (1661–1684), was often away. The church building itself started to fall apart. By 1664, there was no special cup for Communion, and the churchyard (graveyard) had no fence, so pigs could wander in! Things slowly got better. By 1715, the church was in good shape, and new pews and a gallery for singers had been added.

Some vicars in the 1700s were also often absent, so a helper priest, called a curate, would lead services. A famous Welsh poet named Goronwy Owen was a curate here from 1755 to 1758. In those days, services were held twice on Sundays, and Communion happened 5 to 7 times a year. By 1790, Communion was only held 4 times a year, and only 10 people would attend. But by 1965, things had changed again, with daily evening services and Communion, and four services on Sundays!

New Churches for a Growing Area

Northolt grew a lot in the 1930s and after 1945. Because of this, three new churches were started between 1940 and 1960. Two of these churches were in a new area created from part of Northolt.

• St Joseph the Worker: This church started meeting in 1942 in temporary places. Services were held in a school and a church-house. Later, a hall that could be used for both church and other events was built in 1959. Land was bought in 1963 for a new church building.
• St Hugh: In the southeast part of Northolt, services began around 1948 in a builder's hut. A temporary hut was dedicated as St Hugh's church in 1954, and it was later rebuilt.
• St Richard: In 1958, services started in a youth club hut in the Northolt Park area. The hut burned down in 1959, so the church met in a school. A building that could be used as both a hall and a church was opened in 1960 and named St Richard's.

Who Owned the Church?

Records show there was a priest in Northolt in 1086, and a church is mentioned around 1140. The oldest parts of the current church building match the 1200s. This church served the whole area until 1954, when a new church area, St Barnabas, was formed from parts of Northolt and Greenford.

The church used to belong to Walden Abbey, a monastery founded around 1140. The abbey had rights to the church until the mid-1200s, when St. Paul's Cathedral challenged their claim. They agreed that the Bishop of London would choose the vicars (priests) for St Mary's. The vicars had to pay money each year to help support St Paul's Cathedral. The Bishop continued to choose the priests until 1864. After that, a college at Oxford University, Brasenose College, gained the right to choose the rector.

The church's value was recorded over the centuries. In the 1200s, it was worth about £5. By 1535, during the time of Henry VIII, it was valued at £15. The church also owned land, which provided income. Most of this land was sold for building houses after 1920.

Where Did the Priests Live?

A house for the vicar (the vicarage) is first mentioned in 1610. In 1692, the old house was taken down, and a new, bigger house was built by Charles Alston. By 1715, this new vicarage was a brick house with seven main rooms, a kitchen, a dairy, cellars, other buildings, and a walled garden. Small additions were made in the 1800s. However, after 1900, the house started to fall apart and was taken down in 1928. By 1963, the vicar was living in a semi-detached house on Church Road.