History

Early history

There has been a church building on this site for nearly a thousand years; excavations during the 19th century unearthed solid blocks of stone and ornamental work suggesting that a Norman building stood here. No pictures of that original structure survive.

This was the only church in a large parish that stretched from the Thames at Brentford north towards Wembley, west beyond Southall and east to Acton and Bedford Park. Richard Smart, who was the vicar of St Mary's at the end of the 16th century, compiled a census which recorded a total of 427 inhabitants in this whole area. Through the parish passed the only two roads from London to the West. They were the trade routes, and it was not uncommon for travellers to stop for refreshment at the parsonage and rest their horses.

During the Civil War of 1642, the building suffered so badly at the hands of Cromwell's troops that in 1650 a parliamentary survey described St. Mary's as 'ruinated and lying open since the plundering'. Soon afterwards came the Plague, with great loss of life. After years of neglect and deterioration, the medieval church was pulled down in the late 1720s and a plain and simple Georgian building erected, complete with a new peal of bells. It is that new building, opened on Trinity Sunday 1740, which forms the core of what still stands here today.

However Ealing's population grew rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1838. The village became a respectable town. St. Mary's still had an important role in the community, which included overseeing the workhouse, providing schools, maintaining law and order, improving roads and streetlighting, distributing alms and collecting taxes. Brentford became separated from Ealing, and parishes became smaller.

By 1860, Ealing's community believed the time had come to create a much more imposing church. The congregation at St. Mary's were all too well aware that the newly erected Christ Church was attracting many worshippers, and that the existing church building 'did not call forth feelings of reverence'. It was also too small for the growing population.

What the Victorians did for us!

So the architect S.S. Teulon transformed the simple village church into a huge 'Byzantine shrine'. He did this, not by demolishing the existing church, but by greatly enlarging it, and decorating it with vibrant colours. Parish records reveal how even in those days the congregation had to struggle to find the money. Some of his ideas, including the proposed for a tall spire, had to be dropped.

On May 30th 1866 the new building was consecrated by Bishop Tait, who commented that 'St Mary's had been transformed from a Georgian monstrosity into a Constantinopolitan basilica'! You may think otherwise!

Post-Teulon additions to the building

Further works were carried out after Teulon's transformation and the vestry on the north side was extended in 1887. The organ was rebuilt and much enlarged in 1927. And the whole church was extensively refurbished and redecorated in the mid-1950s. The lounge was added to the south in 1959 and extended to form 'The Polygon' in 1978.

The most recent works had their origin back in 1984, when the Parochial Church Council decided that the only way to restore St Mary's was to undertake a total refurbishment of both the outside and the inside of the entire building.  The following year a full-scale survey was carried out, which highlighted the need for urgent work to be carried out on the tower, nave, chancel and roof, as well as the interior.  The exterior work was undertaken in 1988. 

In 1991 plans for the internal re-ordering were presented to the congregation, and the first phase, the improvements to the West entrance of the church, were financed and carried out in 1993.  The story of the restoration of the inside in 2002/2003 is described on the Restoration page.