Editing Staines-upon-Thames (section)

===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/>