There has been a church dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin in Ewell since the 13th century, a board above the south door in the current building recording incumbents from 1239 to the present day.

A fire in 1973, started by the explosion of the church's central heating boiler, destroyed the North Aisle and everything in it, including an organ built in 1865 by "Father" Henry Willis, except a print of The Light of the World by famous painter and local resident William Holman Hunt, who painted the original by the disused gunpowder mills in Kingston Road.

Recently, a set of Stations of the Cross and Resurrection by the noted artist and parishioner Iain McKillop were dedicated for use at St Mary's, having been displayed at Lichfield Cathedral.

In 1975 there was a risk that the latter church would be closed—so, to protect the organ's future, they sold it to Saint Mary's, which had lost a similar instrument in a fire two years previously.

The Vicar of Ewell, the Parochial Church Council and the Director of Music have decided that efforts should be made to redress this situation and, to that end, are to promote the instrument through a number of recitals and concerts, the particulars of which can be viewed here.