This is a work in progress and may contain errors. It will be updated as research continues.
As Kensington/Brompton developed in the early 1800’s there was a need for another church to cover the large area of Kensington (St. Mary Abbott’s being the only Church of England church). In 1829 much of the parish south of Kensington High Street was formed into a new parish of Holy Trinity, Brompton. By the 1840’s continued development meant that Holy Trinity itself needed another church in the parish, and the then vicar of Holy Trinity, Rev. William J. Irons, took the plans forward. Robert Gunter (who was building the Gunter estate at the time), offered a site in a “planted enclosure” in The Boltons, West Brompton. Rev. Hogarth J. Swale provided funds and pushed the development on: this is the origin of St. Mary’s (West Brompton).
The plans were sent to the Commissioners for Building New Churches in May 1849 by George Godwin (architect of St. Mary’s), who was also Robert Gunter’s estate surveyor. The foundation stone was laid in August 1849, with the consecration taking place in October 1850. St. Mary’s covered a small district (given in December 1850): stretching west to the Kensington Canal, east to Selwood Terrace and north to just beyond the Old Brompton Road: probably covering around 3,500 people. St. Mary’s had 700 sittings, and 200 of which were free. The cost was around £6000, most of it given by Rev. Hogarth J. Swale, who also became the first incumbent (served 1850–52). Initially St. Mary’s was known as St. Mary’s, West Brompton, and was consecrated by the Bishop of London, 22 October 1850.
The design of the church was low-church, and The Ecclesiologist wrote:
... not what we should have expected from the Vicar of Brompton, the services being read from a desk of stone in the lantern. The chancel is filled with stall-like seats of deal, and there are sedilia in the sanctuary. We were, we own, not a little scandalized to see a central block of inferior free seats up the middle of the nave. Really Mr. Irons ought not to have sanctioned such an outworn corruption in 1850 ... Neither can we approve of the plan. The cruciform church without aisles, with clustered lantern-piers, and the desk and pulpit in the lantern, and a door in one of the transepts, is an auditorium disguised, rather than a place of collected worship:—the congregation being divided into three perfectly distinct bodies, (arranged on the radiating principle), of which the largest is entirely invisible to the two smaller ones, who sit facing each other like adverse squadrons,—the pulpit and desk forming the centre of radiation, and the altar standing quite out of sight of the two minor congregations.”
source: From Survey of London, Vol. 41, p. 234, quoting The Ecclesiologist, n. s., vol. viii, 1850, p. 8a.
After Rev. Swale, [1] the next minister was Rev. Thomas Pearson (vicar 1852–60), [2] and the Rev. Nathaniel Liberty was St. Mary’s first curate (served 1855–68). The appeal to build a spire, started 1 October 1854, received a £100 donation from Pearson, and eventually raised £1,034 in 1856, when the spire was added.
In 1860 Rev. Pearson exchanged pulpits with Rev. Mayow Wyndell Mayow, Vicar of Market Lavington, Wilts. The Rev. Mayow was “High Church”, something that was increasingly disliked by the church-goers and his fellow clergy. Mayow resigned in 1868 citing “problems in the parish”.
In 1862 J. C. Cuttlebuck became an assistant curate at St. Mary’s, with his name first appearing as performing a baptismal ceremony in the baptismal register of 11 May 1862.
The next vicar, Rev. William Thomas Du Boulay (served 1868-1909), was more “high church”, and in 1870 redecorated the chancel, moved the choir from the west gallery, allowing the stalls to be extended into the space under the tower etc. As Rev. William Pepperell wrote in 1871:
the whole aspect of things in the chancel looks towards Ritualism
source: The Church Index, 1872, William Pepperell, p. 11
Further work was undertaken 1871–2, with a north vestry being built, the organ being moved, and the space under the tower being filled with a groined vault of wood etc.
St. Mary’s district started to shrink from 1867, as the new churches of St. Peter’s (Cranley Gardens), St. Augustine’s (Queen’s Gate), St. Jude’s (Courtfield Gardens) and St. Luke’s (Redcliffe Square) opened. It was during this period that St. Mary’s started to be known as St. Mary’s, The Boltons—a designation it still uses today.
St. Mary’s parish magazine, The Clarion, was started in 1872 [3]. and has continued to the present day, appearing monthly.
New windows appeared 1882–5, and in 1902 the deal seats were replaced by oak ones, and gangways formed. Bomb damage during 1939–45, coupled with neglect, lead to further alterations being made from 1952 onwards. This saw a new East Windows (by Margaret Kaye), walls whitewashed, new organ, the alter moved etc.
The church still exists, and is set is very pleasant surroundings.
This comes from Tom Gibb’s book but hopefully I’ll be able to add more detail later.
Hogarth J. Swale |
1850–1852 |
Thomas Pearson |
1852–1860 |
Mayow Wynde Mayow |
1860–1868 |
William Thomas DuBoulay |
1868–1909 |
William Elitto Rosedale |
1909–1920 |
E. J. Austin |
1920–1928 |
R. A. W. Waddilove |
1928–1935 |
George Maurice Bosworth |
1936–1946 |
John Nickels (Priest-in-Charge 1952–54) |
1952–1960 |
Alfred Peter Taylor |
1960– |
Again, from Tom Gibb’s book, but detail to be added.
1855 |
N. Liberty |
1862 |
J. C. Clutterbuck |
1864 |
N. G. Charrington |
1864 |
W. McCrae |
1864 |
S. I. Crawhall |
1866 |
F. M. Gregory |
1867 |
W. Harris |
1868 |
W. G. Marsden |
1869 |
A. Harris |
1872 |
G. Moor |
1877 |
F. Boag |
1879 |
E. B. Hewitt |
1880 |
C. E. B. Barnwell |
1883 |
C. L. Dundas |
1884 |
G. W. Mackie |
1887 |
P. D. Eyre |
1889 |
H. C. Moxon |
1890 |
J. T. T. Robinson |
1891 |
W. Graham |
1904 |
J. Horrocks |
1909 |
W. C. H. Moreland |
1911 |
G. S. Shackelford |
1914 |
J. G. Denniston |
1915 |
H. S. Martin |
1916 |
P. B. Phelps |
1918 |
R. G. Millidge |
1928 |
A. R. Tremearne |
1939 |
W. M. Watt |
1957 |
J. Owen |
1960 |
G. L. Lynch-Watson |
1963 |
M. N. McHaffie |
1829-40 |
Joseph Holden Pott |
1829-35 |
Percival Frye |
1835-40 |
Roberth Samuel Bathiscombe |
1840-70 |
William Joseph Irons |
1870-72 |
Thomas Fraser Stooks |
1872-77 |
Arthur Brook |
St. Mary Boltons, “The Country Church in Kensington”, 1850–1964. A Short History by T. F. Gibbs.
The Survey of London, vol. 41—contains a detailed architectural and historic information about the church building.
The Clarion, [St. Mary the Boltons church magazine], March 1967: The Man who Built St. Mary’s, Part 1 by Tom Gibbs. [also The Clarion, May 1972, then part II, June 1972]
[Aside: Tom Gibbs, historian and churchwarden of St. Mary the Boltons, died in September 1972. His funeral service was held on 28th September, and the address given by the Vicar was reprinted in The Clarion, November 1972.]
[1] The last entry in the Baptismal Register for Saint Mary’s, signed by Swale, is 23 February 1852. The next, 27 March 1852, is in a different hand, and then from 11 April 1852 the signature is Thomas Pearson, and he signs himself curate. On 28 April Pearson then signs himself incumbent.
[2] The last entry in the Baptismal Register for Saint Mary’s by Thomas Pearson (signed as incumbent) is 17 June 1860. The following entries are then mainly by Nathaniel Liberty until on 15 July 1860 the first baptism by M. W. Mayow, Incumbent appears.
[3] The information on The Clarion comes from Gibbs (p. 14), who says it was founded in 1872 but that no issues prior to 1879 are known. Kensington Local Studies only have copies from December 1964 onwards.