Title:
WANSTEAD, St. Mary the Virgin with Christ Church
Level: Category
Parish Records
Level: Fonds
WANSTEAD, St. Mary the Virgin with Christ Church
Admin History:
This note is based partly on the account in the Victoria County History of Essex, volume 6 (1973), pages 332-334, and also on Graham Dixon and Patricia Wilkinson, The Parish of Wanstead (1990). Both of these works are available in the Essex Record Office Library.

Under an Act of 1787 [D/P 292/28/2/1, 2] the medieval church of St. Mary the Virgin was demolished. Its replacement, designed by Thomas Hardwick, was built nearby on ground given by Sir James Tylney Long of Wanstead House. The new church was consecrated on 24 June 1790. The site of the old church remains within the present churchyard.

In July 1861 Christ Church, Wanstead, was opened as a chapel-of-ease. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the new church served the growing centre of population near Snaresbrook railway station. It was later extended. A parish hall, next to the church, was dedicated in 1973. However, St. Mary's remains formally (2002) the parish church.

A part of the ancient parish was removed in 1879 to help to form the parish of Holy Trinity, Harrow Green, Leytonstone [see D/P 292/28/13]. Records of the new parish are (2002) in the custody of Waltham Forest Archives. In 1888 the mission church of Holy Trinity, Hermon Hill, became the centre of a new parish created out of Wanstead and Woodford, for records of which see D/P 588. Further areas were removed in 1914 to form part of the parish of St. Gabriel, Aldersbrook, and in 1963 to help to create the parish of South Woodford.

The original churchyard at St. Mary's was closed for burials in 1889. An extension had been filled by 1906, and further extensions were consecrated in 1908 and 1924 [for consecration papers for the latter see D/CC 59/12 and D/CC 75/10 respectively]. Christ Church has never had a burial ground.

Key terms

TypeKey termsDescription
Personal Names Thomas
Hardwick 		architect, Wanstead, 1790
Personal Names Sir
George Gilbert
Scott 		Wanstead, 1861
Personal Names Sir
James Tylney
Long 		Wanstead, 1790
Place Names Wanstead St. Mary the Virgin with Christ Church: parish records