Church of St Mary is a Grade II listed building in the Barking and Dagenham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 15 April 1991. Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- wild-railing-furze
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Barking and Dagenham
- Constituency
- Dagenham and Rainham MP: Margaret Mullane (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 15 April 1991
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Mary, Grafton Road
- OS grid reference
- TQ 484 863
- Coordinates
- 51.55606, 0.14014
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary is a church built between 1934 and 1935 by the architects Welch, Cachemaille-Day, and Lander. It features a concrete rendered exterior with brick dressings and a plain tile roof. The church has a five-bay nave and a four-bay north aisle, which includes a porch at the west end. The sanctuary consists of three bays below a tower, and there is a one and a half-storey, two-bay vestry with a flat roof at the northeast corner.
The windows are characterized by steeply-pointed curved heads with intersecting tracery, while the doors also have curved heads and are panelled. The structure includes buttresses and brick verges. The west end is dominated by a steeply-gabled nave with a five-light window. The gabled aisle, set back on the left, features a three-light window and is fronted by a porch with a shallowly-pitched roof. The two-stage tower has a tile offset at the lower level, with a drum at the southeast corner that rises as a vice and includes slit windows and a concrete ribbed bellcote. There is a band below the two-light windows, which are set in concave panels, and a single lancet window at the east end.
Inside, the nave has a barn-like appearance with a pointed arched aisle arcade, corbelled upper crucks, and two tiers of through purlins. The tower is made of ribbed brick, with main ribs springing from flower-decorated brackets. It features pointed arched arcades and a nave arch, along with a balcony below the windows and tubular metal light fittings. The altar rail has squat, spindle-type balusters, and the floors are parquet. The original pulpit and lectern are also present.
This church is one of five built to serve the large London County Council Becontree Estate.
Local climate
Church of St Mary sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 670 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 27 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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