Church Of St Mary, Harmondsworth

Church of St Mary, Harmondsworth

This parish church combines 12th-century foundations with later medieval additions and 19th-century modifications. The south arcade and doorway date to the 12th century, while the north arcade was built in the 13th century. The chancel was substantially rebuilt between 1396 and 1398, attributed by architectural historian John Harvey to master mason William Wynford. A north chancel aisle and brick tower were added around 1500. A 19th-century south porch and modern north-west vestry complete the building sequence.

The walls are constructed of flint, conglomerate, and rubble with stone dressings. The tower's upper stages are of brick with rendered quoins, moulded courses, battlements, and angle pedestals topped by a cupola carried on cast-iron columns. Roofs are tiled throughout. The plan comprises a nave and chancel, north aisle, south-west tower, south porch, and short south aisle.

The most striking exterior feature is the buttressed brick tower with its battlemented parapet, circular cupola bearing a weathervane, and clock on the south face. The cupola is supported by six cast-iron columns. The south door, sheltered beneath a timber porch, is the church's chief architectural jewel. Dating to the 12th century, it is of limestone with a round arch of three orders. The outer voussoirs are enriched with double chevron moulding; the central order displays beak heads projecting over roll-moulding; the inner order carries incised geometrical roundels. Enriched shafts with scalloped capitals flank the door below the central order. The door is believed to have been reset in its present location when the church was remodelled in the later Middle Ages. The south wall of the chancel includes a medieval scratch-dial. A pointed-arched priest's door and twin-gabled east end complete the exterior.

The nave retains a four-bay 15th-century king-post roof, its uprights renewed in the 19th century, with tie beams. Early 16th-century pews with moulded rails and Gothic buttresses line the space. The west window is late 19th-century plate tracery with four lancets and three round openings containing clear glass.

The south aisle is divided by two circular Norman piers with scalloped capitals supporting an arcade of three pointed arches. Two 15th-century two-light windows appear on the south wall, and a three-light east window contains late 19th-century glass signed by O'Connor. The open pitched timber roof with tie beams is largely original.

The north aisle and chapel reveal different construction phases. The western two-and-a-half bays feature an arcade of pointed arches carried on circular shafts with square, shallow capitals, dating to the 13th century. The eastern three-and-a-half bays, serving the north aisle and north chapel, are carried on octagonal shafts bearing four-centred arches, dated around 1500. This abrupt transition marks the division between the two phases. The north aisle roof incorporates clasped purlins, probably of medieval origin. The chapel itself has a small hammerbeam roof with tie-beams, curved braces, and moulded pendant bosses, dating from around 1500.

The nave contains a ledger slab to Richard Coombes (died 1672) and 18th- and 19th-century memorials to the Stirling family. A large organ of 1879 by H Jones stands in the nave.

The chancel features three-bay sedilia and a piscina, both dating to around 1500. The east window of three lights contains stained glass signed by O'Connor depicting the Crucifixion, Christ walking on the water, and Christ calming the waters, installed in memory of Walter de Burgh RN (died 1861). A late 19th-century oak altar of Gothic design carries a painted depiction of the Annunciation on its central panels. The stone reredos behind features a sacred monogram in a mandorla set within a pointed arch below a central gable. A pair of two-light windows on the south side includes the easternmost window (signed O'Connor) depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac and Christ and the Centurion, erected in memory of Matthew Stent (died 1871). The western window, signed H Hughes and dated 1879, depicts the women at the empty tomb and was erected in memory of Thomas Whipham (died 1860). Monuments include a matching pair of veined marble pedimented tablets to Anna and Richard Banckes (died 1734 and 1750), with a small tablet between them inscribed "What death divided Love hath conjoined".

The base of the tower serves as the baptistery and contains a font of around 1200 made of Purbeck marble. The font has an octagonal bowl on a plinth ringed by eight small circular shafts. South and west windows in this space are two-light apertures containing stained glass signed by E R Suffling. An organ by Henry Speechy & Son of the Camden Organ Factory also occupies this space.

The tower houses a belfry containing six bells, originally cast by Bryan Eldridge of Chertsey in 1658, with subsequent recastings. Timber roof structure over the belfry bears a plaque referring to works undertaken in 1839.

The church belonged to the Abbey of Holy Trinity, Rouen at the end of the 11th century. It passed to the See of Winchester in 1391 following William of Wickham's acquisition, prompting a substantial new campaign of works. This highly characterful Middlesex medieval parish church retains a lightly restored character that enhances its historical and architectural interest. The building forms a powerful group with the adjacent tithe barn and churchyard, which contains brick chest tombs and headstones.