Built upon the highest point in Hanwell and providing a commanding view out over the River Brent valley, it is the perfect site for a parish church.

However, due to its commanding topographical position, which enables the distinctive broach spire to be seen from many miles away, it has been suggested that this may have been a pagan place of worship long before Christianity reached this part of the world.

An early supporter of this hypothesis was Sir Montagu Sharpe KC DL, a local historian and a member of the Society of Antiquaries.

[1] In nearby Northolt, the parish church of St. Mary, which is also on high ground, has had much evidence found around it of past occupation by the Beaker people.

These two elevated sites along with nearby St. Mary's, Harrow on the Hill and Castle Bar, all being clearly visible to each other, would have been natural places for people to congregate, whatever their beliefs.

Even more tantalizing he observed: that at exactly the north east corner stood the gate and path of Perivale's parish church of St. Mary's.

A notable and widely visible landmark from its high elevation, the bell tower, at the south west end, is topped with a broach spire.

The famous painter William Frederick Yeames, who at one time was this building's churchwarden, is thought to have done the wall paintings in the chancel.

[3] The east stained glass lancet windows are notable for their early use of very vivid, hard, bright colours.

He was an English heavyweight boxer but remembered today as the man striking the gong at the start of each film released by the Rank Organisation.

Nikolaus Pevsner described it thus: “a peach of an early c19 Gothic thatched cottage with two pointed windows, a quatrefoil, and an ogee arched door, all on a minute scale.

These troubles were thought to have weighed so heavily upon him, that whilst his mind was deranged with worry, he hanged himself at an inn in London on 30 October 1809.

In order to meet the spiritual needs of the growing population of the parish he established St. Mark's Church on the corner of Green Lane and the Lower Boston Road.