Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Each parish was obliged to elect Overseers of the Poor by the Poor Law Act of 1598 and the Poor Relief Act of 1601. The Overseers were responsible for collecting the poor rate from inhabitants of the parish, and using the rate to relieve local paupers, including running a workhouse if they so chose. The Clerk of the Peace was responsible for keeping the records of Quarter Sessions for each county.
Saint Mary the Virgin is an ancient parish within Hampton Deanery, which is within the Kensington Area of the Diocese of London. The following parishes were cleaved from the ancient parish: Holy Trinity, Twickenham Common (1842); Saint Stephen, East Twickenham (1875); Twickenham, All Saints (1914) and Twickenham, All Hallows (1939). The parish of Saint Philip and Saint Paul, Whitton, was also created from Saint Mary's in 1862. Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Whitton, was created as a London Diocesan Home Mission church in 1935, within the parish of Saint Philip and Saint Paul, and became a separate parish in 1958.
The church of Saint Mary the Virgin was rebuilt in 1714-15 by John James, who was one of the surveyors to Queen Anne's Fifty New Churches project. Its structure is of red brick with Tuscan pilasters surmounted by a pediments. There is an early 16th century bell, three from the 17th century and four from the 18th century. The church was enlarged again in 1754. There are many original fittings including the gallery fronts and reredos and also monuments: a mediaeval monument brass of 1443 to Richard Burton, the King's chief cook. There is a monument to Alexander Pope and his parent (Pope and his mother are buried here).