St Mary's Church, Twickenham | |
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St Mary's Church
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51°26′49″N 0°19′32″W / 51.447°N 0.3255°WCoordinates: 51°26′49″N 0°19′32″W / 51.447°N 0.3255°W | |
Location | Church Street, Twickenham, London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Denomination | Church of England |
Website | stmarytwick.org.uk |
History | |
Dedication | Saint Mary the Virgin |
Consecrated | 1714 |
Associated people | Godfrey Kneller |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | John James |
Architectural type | Neo-classical |
Specifications | |
Materials | brick, stone |
Administration | |
Parish | St Mary's, Twickenham |
Deanery | Hampton |
Archdeaconry | Middlesex |
Diocese | London (Kensington Area) |
Province | Canterbury |
Clergy | |
Vicar(s) | Revd Jeff Hopkin Williams |
Assistant priest(s) | Revd Dr Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski |
Laity | |
Director of music | Adrian Mumford |
Churchwarden(s) | Judy Britton Katherine Cox |
Listed Building – Grade II*
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Designated | 2 September 1952 |
Reference no. | 1080852 |
St Mary's, Twickenham, is a Grade II* listed Church of England place of worship dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin in Church Street, Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
The parish church stands a short distance from York House and the banks of the River Thames, immediately opposite Eel Pie Island.
The church stands on the site of an earlier one and incorporates its 15th-century medieval tower. On 9 April 1713 the ancient church's 14th-century nave collapsed. The painter Godfrey Kneller was a churchwarden of St Mary's at the time and was active in the plans for reconstruction in the Neo-classical style by the local architect John James. A local resident, Lady Wentworth, wrote a month after the collapse that it had been foreseen by a new vicar, Dr Pratt:
Dr Pratt had insisted that a tabernakle be erected in the churchyard, prior to the collapse. Soe he preached there and exhorted al to giv thanks for thear great deleverenc for the church not falling when they wear in it, it being then standing. The people all laughed at him, and in a weeks time it fell to the ground, soe all the parish contrebutse to the building of it.
Inside the 18th-century church some older monuments have survived from the medieval nave, including a brass to Richard Burton, the King's chief cook, and Agnes his wife, dated 1443.
On 20 June 1721 Dr Pratt baptised at the church "James Shandayes and John Twogood", described as two Indian princes. They were followed in 1747 by Henry Fielding's son William.Hallam Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and eventually second Governor-General of Australia, was christened at the church in 1852.