Parish of St Mary The Virgin, Perivale , Church of England

The medieval parish church of Perivale or Little Greenford, St Mary the Virgin, is situated in the valley of the River Brent south of Western Avenue in the south west corner of the parish. When suburban development reached Perivale in the 1930s, a mission church dedicated to St Nicholas was built on the north side of Western Avenue, where most of the development was taking place. The parish was extended to the east in 1932 to take in part of St James, Alperton and St Barnabas, Ealing. St Nicholas' Church was consecrated in 1935 and was assigned a conventional district, but was never licensed for marriages. It was placed in the care of a missioner with the intention that in time it would become a separate parish. It had its own Parochial Church Council and published its own parish magazine. In the 1950s the Bishop of London decided that Perivale should remain one parish. At the end of 1955 St Nicholas again became an integral part of the parish of Perivale and ceased to maintain separate accounts. The missioner was replaced by a priest-in-charge under the authority of the Rector of Perivale. The two parts of the parish were brought closer together at the end of 1959 when the priest-in-charge of St Nicholas, the Reverend W H Hobday, became Rector of Perivale. A new parish church was built in the early 1960s to replace both St Mary and St Nicholas. It is situated in Federal Road adjacent to St Nicholas Church, which is now the parish hall. It was consecrated in 1965 and dedicated to both St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas. The old parish church was restored and continued in use until 1972 when it was closed and declared redundant. It is now an arts centre. St Mary's burial ground has been closed but occasional interments still take place there in private graves. The Perivale Committee was set up by St Mary's Parochial Church Council.