Editing Staines-upon-Thames (section)

==Places of worship==
===St Mary's Church===
[[File:Staines StMary SSW.jpg|thumb|[[St Mary's, Staines|St Mary's Church]]]]
{{main|St Mary's, Staines}}
St Mary's Church is first recorded in 1179, but it is thought to have been in existence for at least 100 years before that.<ref name=Dix_1987_p74>{{harvnb|Dix|Nunn|1987|p=74}}</ref> There is no mention of a church in Domesday Book,<ref name=Staines_Domesday/>{{refn|group=note|name=Burnham}} but there may have been a place of worship on the site since the 9th century.<ref>{{harvnb|Jackson|2002|p=29}}</ref> By the end of the medieval period, St Mary's had a [[chancel]], [[nave]] and an [[aisle]] on the north side. It was primarily built of brick in the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic style]] and the [[bell tower|tower]] at the west end was added in 1631.<ref name=Dix_1987_p74/><ref name=VCH_pp27-30>{{harvnb|Reynolds|1962|pp=27–30}}</ref>

The condition of the church deteriorated in the late 17th and 18th century, due in part to the sale of the [[lead]] from the roof of the aisle to fund the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] cause in the Civil War.<ref>{{harvnb|Maryfield|2006|p=32}}</ref> The north side of the building collapsed in 1827<ref>{{cite news |title= Accident at Staines Church |work= Morning Post |issue= 17548 |date= 13 March 1827 }}</ref><ref name=Maryfield_2006_p97>{{harvnb|Maryfield|2006|p=97}}</ref> and a new church was built in 1828–9, incorporating the 17th-century tower.<ref name=VCH_pp27-30/><ref name=Goble_2016_pp20-21>{{harvnb|Goble|2016|pp=20–21}}</ref> Among the [[stained glass]] panels in the church is a window behind the [[altar]], given by the [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Crown Prince]] and [[Victoria, Princess Royal|Crown Princess]] of [[Prussia]].<ref name=Goble_2016_pp20-21/> In 2005, a window was dedicated to those who died in the 1972 Staines air disaster.<ref name=Memorial_Window/>

===St Peter's Church===
[[File:Staines StPeter west.jpg|thumb|St Peter's Church]]
St Peter's Church was founded as a [[chapel of ease]] to St Mary's in 1874. A brick building was constructed at the corner of Wyatt and Langley Roads and was used until 1885, when the congregation moved to an [[tin tabernacle|iron church]] on the corner of Edgell and Budebury Roads.<ref name=StPetersWeb>{{cite web |title= A history of St Peter's Church |url= https://www.stmaryandstpeterstaines.co.uk/history-of-st-peters.html |publisher= St Mary and St Peter Staines |access-date= 11 May 2022 |archive-date= 10 May 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210510070609/https://www.stmaryandstpeterstaines.co.uk/history-of-st-peters.html |url-status= live }}</ref>{{refn|The iron church was purchased from a congregation in North London and was dismantled and transported to Staines. The cost of the building was paid for by public conscription.<ref name=StPetersWeb/>|group=note}}

The [[cornerstone|foundation stone]] for the current St Peter's Church was laid on 22 July 1893 and the building was [[consecration|consecrated]] on 28 July the following year.<ref name=StPetersWeb/><ref>{{cite news |title= Sir E. Clarke's Munificence |work= Nottinghamshire Guardian |page=2 |issue= 2568 |date= 4 August 1894 }}</ref> It was designed by [[George Fellowes Prynne]] in the [[Perpendicular Gothic|free Perpendicular style]] and the cost of construction was paid by the [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]], Edward Clarke MP. The [[battlement|crenellated]] tower is topped with a set-back [[spire]], and contains a [[ring of bells|ring]] of eight bells.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1204911|desc=Church of St Peter|grade=II|fewer-links=yes}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Clarke|1918|pp=202–203}}</ref>{{refn|The artificial mound on which St Peter's Church is built was formed by material excavated from land to the south, resulting in the small lake behind the Riverbank Apartments.<ref name=StPetersWeb/>|group=note}}

===Christ Church===
[[File:Staines KingstonRd ChristChurchOblique.jpg|thumb|right|Christ Church]]
The first Christ Church, in Kenilworth Gardens, was constructed in 1935 to serve the new area of housing along Kingston Road to the southeast of the town centre. The brick building was able to accommodate 280 worshippers, and a sliding partition at the west end of the chancel allowed the nave to be used as a church hall. The parish of Christ Church was created in 1951 and a decade later construction of a new church began on the same site as the old. The new Christ Church, consecrated in October 1962, has a centrally placed altar positioned beneath a square [[lantern (architecture)|lantern]]. The lantern allows natural light into the interior of the building and is topped with a narrow spire. The [[baptismal font|font]], which dates from 1750, was given to the congregation in 1935, and was previously installed in St Mary's Church.<ref name=Greatorex_2000_p9/>

===Staines Methodist Church===
[[John Wesley]] made his first visit to Staines in 1771 and, by the early 19th century, there was a small congregation of [[Methodism|Methodists]] in the town. The first chapel, opened {{circa|1845}} on Kingston Road, was replaced by a larger building on the same street in 1865. The congregation moved to the current church, on Thames Street, in 1987.<ref>{{cite web |title= About us |url= http://www.stainesmethodistchurch.org.uk/page2.html |publisher= Staines Methodist Church |access-date= 18 May 2022 |archive-date= 5 September 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180905013322/http://stainesmethodistchurch.org.uk/page2.html |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mansfield|1992|p=15}}</ref>

===Our Lady of the Rosary===
[[File:Our Lady of the Rosary, Staines - East end (geograph 5057436).jpg|thumb|right|Our Lady of the Rosary, interior]]
The first Roman Catholic [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] to be celebrated at Staines since the [[English Reformation|Reformation]], took place in 1862 at the [[workhouse]], on the site of the present [[Ashford Hospital]]. A chapel was opened in 1890 on Gresham Road and was initially known as "Our Lady, Help of Christians". The current name, "Our Lady of the Rosary" was granted in 1893. The building was extended eastwards to form the present church in 1931, with the addition of a chancel and narrow south aisle. Renovation work in 1990, added additional side aisles and created a new church hall at the west end.<ref name=Mansfield_1992_p18/>

===Staines Congregational Church===
There has been a substantial population of [[English Dissenters|Dissenters]] living in Staines since the mid-17th century and, by 1690, there was a permanent meeting house in the town.<ref name=Maryfield_2006_p97/> The numbers of [[Congregational Church|Congregationalists]] declined in the mid-18th century, but a regular meeting was re-established in the High Street in 1785. A chapel was constructed in Thames Street in 1802<ref name=Congregational_Church>{{cite web |title= Chronology |date= 21 July 2013 |url= https://www.stainescong.org/about/our-history/ |publisher= Staines Congregational Church |access-date= 18 May 2022 |archive-date= 13 June 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210613174808/https://www.stainescong.org/about/our-history/ |url-status= live }}</ref> and was replaced by a classical-style church on the same site in 1837.<ref name=Maryfield_2006_p97/> The present Congregational Church, on Kingston Road, opened in May 1956.<ref name=Congregational_Church/>