St Mary's Parish Church is at the junction of two major roads, A308 and A311, leading to Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames and Sunbury-on-Thames.

Certainly a house of worship has stood here for at least 650 years, as historical records begin in 1342, when the site came into possession of the Priory of Takeley in Essex.

Before that time it is possible that a simple wooden structure existed, or services may have been held under the ancient yew tree that stood in the churchyard until 1829.

The interior of the building had galleries round the north, west and south sides, with a singing loft for choir and instrumental accompaniment.

At the time of Henry VIII a new nave, south aisle and porch were rebuilt with brick (“having got out of repair and become unsafe”) – the original flint and stone chancel and tower were retained.

Memorials from the old church were preserved and erected in the new church, including those to Susannah Thomas (d.1731), Sibel Penn (d.1562), who was nurse to Edward VI, Edmond Pigeon and his son Nickolas, who served as Yeoman of the Jewel House, and Huntington Shaw (d.1710), who ‘designed and executed the ornamental Iron work at Hampton Court Palace.’ [1] As the population grew the Vestry decided that the old building needed to be enlarged.

Eventually the old building closed on 27 December 1829, and the congregation moved to the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace as the church was demolished.

(There had been an announcement that the Duke of Clarence — by then already King William IV and was to be crowned one week later — was to attend, but he did present the organ to the parish.)

[2] Also in 1879, the organ, originally in the centre of the west gallery, was moved to its present position in the north-west corner of the church when a surpliced choir was begun.

To mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee (1887) the chancel was built together with the impressive Heaton, Butler and Bayne east window – inspired by the Te Deum.

The doors are etched with two figures, the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, taken from drawings by Eric Fraser and presented by his family in his memory.

In the graveyard is an unusual, Grade II listed, pyramidal tomb for John Greg (1716–1795), plantation owner in Dominica,[4] and his wife Catharine who died at Hampton in 1819 "full of years and of benevolence".

[8] However, the tomb is floridly classical, with partly draped female figures which may have surprised some Victorians and amused others, including J K Jerome himself.