St George's Church, Hanworth

There has been a church on the site, in Castle Way, since at least the fourteenth century; the church was first mentioned in 1293. The first known rector was Adam de Brome, founder of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1309.[2]

According to Daniel Lysons, vicar in 1800, the church was made of flint and stone, with a low wooden turret. As the church's living was in the hands of the lord of the manor, only the name of the rector was mentioned.

The original church included stained glass windows of the coats of arms of the Crosby family, who owned the manor in 1471; the Killigrew family, who owned the manor in the latter part of the sixteenth century; and the Royal arms of 1625, incorporating the royal cypher JR. The latter window was moved to the rectory after the church's reconstruction in 1808, before moving to its present site in the V&A in 1975. Monarchs and their consorts who are known to have worshipped here are King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr and Queen Elizabeth I.[2]

Baron Cottington of Hanworth took a further interest in Saint George's church. He had his son Charles baptised here on 21 July 1628 in the presence of King Charles I, the Duke of Buckingham and Mary Feilding, wife of the Marquess of Hamilton. Cottington also gave the church a silver chalice and paten, which are still used today.[2]

In 1807, it was decided that the entire church should be dismantled and rebuilt. The building of the new church was done by James Wyatt, a notable architect of the time. Wyatt only just lived to see it completed in 1812, as he was killed in a carriage accident the following year. His family are buried in the churchyard, but Wyatt himself lies in Westminster Abbey.[2]

Saint George's assumed its current form in 1865, when a local architect, Algernon Perkins, volunteered to redesign the church at his own expense. The spire, added at about this time, was designed by S S Teulon.[2]

The lychgate, which forms the main entrance to the church, was built in 1882. It is said to be a copy of the one in Beddington, South London, and was done in memory of the mother-in-law of John Lyndhurst Winslow, rector at the time.[2]

Two of the owners of Hanworth Manor, Thomas Chamber and Aubrey Vere, are buried in the church. The former has a memorial tablet, which is now in the north transept, while the latter has a gravestone on the church floor.

St George’s Church, Hanworth is currently in Interregnum. [3][4]

From 1992 until early 2019, Paul Williamson was priest in charge of St George's Church, Hanworth.[5][6] Though Fr Paul is currently challenging both the Church of England’s set retirement age of 70 on grounds of age discrimination, and the Bishop of London’s denial to extend his current Priest-in-Charge license by five years. [7]

St George's is a parish in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It is a Forward in Faith parish.[8] As it rejects the ordination of women, the church receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Fulham (currently Jonathan Baker).[9]

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  Interior
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  War memorial in the church
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  Lychgate