CHURCHES.
In 1086 a priest held a virgate in
Kingsbury. (fn. 95) The church had been appropriated
to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by c.
1244-8 (fn. 96) and the benefice thereafter remained a
donative or curacy in the gift of the hospital and,
after 1544, (fn. 97) of the chapter of St. Paul's cathedral
until 1834 when it became a perpetual curacy, (fn. 98)
after 1868 styled a vicarage. (fn. 99) In 1884 a new parish
church, Holy Innocents, was built and the old
church of St. Andrew became its chapel of ease. (fn. 1)
The Knights Hospitallers were regarded as
rectors and the rectorial glebe and parsonage house
have been treated under Freren manor (q.v.). The
curates were instituted by the hospital and chapter,
except for a short period after 1650 when Sir
William Roberts exercised the patronage. (fn. 2)
Roger, chaplain of Kingsbury, was apparently
living there in 1291 when his 'houses' and the
church were burgled. (fn. 3) Although it was never
effected, the lease of Freren manor in 1505 was to
John Nelson, a chaplain, (fn. 4) which suggests that early
leases were made to clerks who were expected to
serve the cure themselves. From 1506 the leases
were made to laymen who had to find a chaplain
to serve the cure, (fn. 5) and the close connexion continued
with Freren farm-house, described in 1650 as
'commonly called Kingsbury parsonage house'. (fn. 6)
In 1588 the curate lived in a loft in the church-house
which then belonged to Michael Page, the lessee of
Freren; (fn. 7) but it is not clear whether the building was
the small one near the church (fn. 8) or Freren farm-house.
In 1650 the minister had 'two chambers' (fn. 9) and in
1661 the lessee had to allow him a room with a
chimney, called the church loft, or pay him an
extra £5 a year. (fn. 10) In 1699 a lease reserved a cottage
and two pightles near the church for the accommodation of the curate. (fn. 11) Like all subsequent
leases, it said that the property was then in the
occupation of Thomas Gosling, who lived in the
1660s. (fn. 12) The cottage probably fell into disuse when
curates were non-resident. When they began again
to live in the parish in the 19th century, it was
usually in a private house. Henry Atcheson lived at
Hill House in 1851 (fn. 13) and at the Hyde in 1872. (fn. 14)
The two pightles, Little and Great Church field,
were in 1839 described as glebe worth £3 10s.,
owned by the incumbent. (fn. 15)
The minister was paid an annual stipend of £20
by the lessee of Freren in 1650 (fn. 16) and an additional
£20 was approved in 1657 by the trustees for the
maintenance of ministers. (fn. 17) The lessee of Freren had
to pay the curate £30 a year in 1661, (fn. 18) £40 a year
from 1720 to 1834, (fn. 19) when a grant of £200 was made
by Queen Anne's Bounty, (fn. 20) and £80 a year thereafter. (fn. 21) In 1851 the perpetual curate's endowment
was described as £4 10s. in land, £6 10s. from
Queen Anne's Bounty and £80 from other endowment. (fn. 22)
In 1423 it was said that William Bury and his wife
Margaret, William Page's daughter, had been
granted Page's property in Hendon on condition
that they found a suitable chaplain for the church
of Kingsbury to pray for the souls of Page and his
ancestors for 10 years after the death of Page, who
was still alive in 1410. (fn. 23) In 1531 John Edward
surrendered property worth 20s. a year rent to the
use of his wife, on condition that she provided an
obit with a dirge and mass in Kingsbury church for
him and his parents. (fn. 24) Elizabeth Frowyk, by will
proved 1516, provided for torches in several
churches, including Kingsbury. (fn. 25) Michael Roberts
left 3s. 4d. for Kingsbury altar by will proved 1544. (fn. 26)
In 1547 it was said that John Edward had given a
close to maintain a church-house, (fn. 27) perhaps a small
building which adjoined the churchyard in 1597. (fn. 28)
Little is known about the parish priests of
Kingsbury. In 1435 John Ingram, chaplain, was
amerced in the manor court of Kingsbury for
striking Maud Chalkhill. (fn. 29) In 1503 Thomas
Chalkhill was pardoned for killing John Fell,
chaplain and curate of Kingsbury, in self-defence. (fn. 30)
In 1525 William Cheshire, who may have been a
former curate of Kingsbury, attacked John Bishop,
curate of Kingsbury and later vicar of Willesden. (fn. 31)
John West, curate in 1538, was a supporter of
Henry VIII's religious innovations. (fn. 32) Robert Whiting, curate 1580-92, was 'simple'. (fn. 33) Thomas Fox,
appointed curate in 1639, was ejected (fn. 34) and replaced
in 1650 by Thomas Gardiner, a learned Presbyterian. When Gardiner moved to a more important
post in 1654, (fn. 35) he was succeeded by Samuel
Stancliffe, late rector of Great Stanmore. (fn. 36) The last
of Kingsbury's 'Puritan' curates was James Prince,
appointed in 1657 and ejected in 1662. (fn. 37)
Most early curates, often young men straight
from university, were either poor or undistinguished, but from the late 17th century there were
many pluralists, often incumbents of neighbouring
parishes or canons of St. Paul's. Joseph Wilcocks,
curate 1683-1702, was at the same time vicar of
Harrow; William Hawkins, curate 1702-36, and
Henry Fly, curate 1821-33, were also vicars of Willesden and canons of St. Paul's; Thomas Hilman,
curate 1736-64, was another canon. William Clarke
held Kingsbury in plurality with Willesden from
1795 and his successor, Thomas Woodman, held it
with Twyford in 1820. (fn. 38) Moses Wight, curate 1764-
95, vicar of Willesden and canon of St. Paul's, was
a fashionable London preacher who appointed the
learned Samuel Parr, then a master at Harrow
School, as assistant curate with a salary of £25 a
year. (fn. 39) Robert Dillon, assistant curate of Kingsbury
and Willesden in 1824, was also a popular preacher,
especially favoured by women. (fn. 40) In 1833 after complaints about non-residence (fn. 41) the chapter appointed
Henry Atcheson, an extreme Evangelical, who was
resident in the parish for over 40 years. (fn. 42)
In 1497 a Welsh boy of about five years of age was
found bound in the cemetery of Kingsbury church.
After adoption by a tenant of the manor, he was
named David Welch and apprenticed. (fn. 43) In 1685
orders were given that the communion table was to
be railed in. (fn. 44) During the 18th century there was one
service on Sundays, usually in the afternoon,
except three or four times a year when communion
was administered. (fn. 45) A morning service was introduced in 1833 after complaints by the parishioners (fn. 46)
and on census day 1851, the morning and afternoon
services were attended by 55 and 36 people respectively, (fn. 47) presumably including the choir of redhooded girls who occupied the gallery after it was
built in 1840. (fn. 48) In 1883 a morning service at 11.0 a.m.
was held at St. Andrew's while a service at 3 p.m.
and a choral service at 6.30 p.m. were held at the
chapel at the Hyde. Church activities included a
guild of St. Andrew and Kingsbury clothing club. (fn. 49)
The old church of ST. ANDREW, (fn. 50) called in
1393 the church of St. Andrew and St. John the
Baptist, (fn. 51) presumably because of its connexion with
the Hospitallers, is situated in the southern
extremity of the ancient parish of Kingsbury. The
small church is built of flint rubble and Roman
bricks and tiles and consists of undivided nave and
chancel, west turret, and short spire. The modified
long-and-short work of the western quoins may be a
Saxon feature but other evidence, including the
position of the 12th-century doorway, suggests a
post-Conquest date. The chancel and nave contain
13th-century work with 14th- and 15th-century
additions, including a trussed rafter roof. The
parish was always too poor to enlarge the church
and a relaxation of penance granted in 1393 to
those who contributed to the conservation of
St. Andrew's, (fn. 52) suggests that even the existing
fabric was sometimes in danger. Pictures of 1796 (fn. 53)
and 1822 (fn. 54) shows a dilapidated small country
church. In 1840, however, it was drastically
restored. The 14th-century timber south porch, the
carved roof bosses and the rood screen were
removed; the exterior was covered with roughcast
and the roof with plaster; plain glass replaced
quarries, a gallery was added, and a brick vestry was
erected in front of the priest's door. In 1870 the
wooden bell-turret and spire were rebuilt (fn. 55) and in
1888 the church was again restored; the midVictorian roof plaster and brick vestry were
removed and a new vestry was built on the north
side. The roof was re-tiled in 1906 and further
restoration took place in 1955. (fn. 56)
The font, a circular bowl with octagonal rim, is
probably 13th-century. It has no drainage hole and
may have been a domestic mortar. According to
local tradition, it was thrown into a pond in 1840,
whence it was rescued by the owner of Lewgars,
who used it as a flower pot until he was persuaded,
on his death-bed in 1905, to restore it to the church.
The pedestal is modern. The church contains a
late-17th-century oak lectern, which was taken
from a City church in the 1880s and from which
Gladstone read the lesson when he was staying in
Willesden at the end of the 19th century. There are
three original brasses, including one in the chancel
to John Shepherd (d. 1520), his wives, and 18
children. There is a floor-slab to John Bull (d. 1621) (fn. 57)
in the chancel and a table-tomb to Mary Scudamore
(d. 1669) in the churchyard. There are three bells:
(i) c. 1350, by Peter de Weston; (ii) 1604, by James
Butler; (iii) 1708, by Samuel Newton. (fn. 58) The plate
and registers have been transferred to Holy
Innocents church.
When L. C. Edwards, a master at Harrow School,
became curate of Kingsbury in 1883, St. Andrew's
church was too small and the population was
concentrated in the northern part of the parish
and especially at the Hyde. There was a chapel at
the Hyde where his predecessor conducted afternoon and evening services in 1883, (fn. 59) but it was on
Edwards's initiative that a new church was built by
subscription on a site given by All Souls College. (fn. 60)
The church was consecrated in 1884 as the parish
church of Kingsbury, all the endowments and
rights of St. Andrew's being transferred to the new
benefice, which was ordained a vicarage in the
patronage of the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 61) It was
attended on census day 1903 by 96 people in the
morning and 92 in the evening. (fn. 62) The old church
became a chapel of ease, against the wishes of many
of the parishioners who, led by one of the churchwardens, sang psalms and hymns there while the vicar
officiated at the first service in the new parish church. (fn. 63)
In 1887 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners granted
a perpetual annuity of £205 and for the rest of the
century the vicar's income was about £300 a year.
The commissioners also granted £60 for a curate
during the absence of the vicar. (fn. 64) The glebe, the
two fields on either side of St. Andrew's church,
which produced a rental of £7 a year, was sold in
1900 for use as an extension to the burial ground. (fn. 65)
In 1887 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made a
grant of £1,500 for a parsonage, a large but
insanitary building north of the church. (fn. 66) The
London Diocesan Fund purchased a site at Roe
Green in 1929 for a church, vicarage and hall. A
hall was built there and used for public worship
in the 1930s. A site opposite was purchased for a
new, smaller, vicarage, which was built in 1931,
the old vicarage being used successively by the
Children's Adoption Society, the Jewish Children
Refugees, and Dr. Barnardo's Homes (fn. 67) until it was
demolished between 1956 and 1963. (fn. 68)
The church of HOLY INNOCENTS stands at
the highest point of Kingsbury Road, opposite its
junction with Townsend Lane. The nave, chancel,
Lady chapel and south porch were built in the
Gothic style by William Butterfield in 1884 in
yellow stock brick with varicoloured brick patterning. A small western turret was added in 1895 and a
vestry in 1909; narthex, north aisle and choir
vestry were added in 1957. There is one bell. (fn. 69) The
plate, transferred from old St. Andrew's, includes a
silver cup and paten cover, dated 1704, given by
Richard Bowater. (fn. 70) Although an order was given
to keep the registers in 1685, (fn. 71) the registers of births
and deaths are complete only from 1732, and of
marriages from 1735.
In 1885 old St. Andrew's became a consolidated
chapelry under the name of Neasden-cum-Kingsbury, formed from parts of the parishes of Kingsbury and Willesden. It was a chapel of ease in the
gift of the vicar of Kingsbury until he surrendered
the right of presentation to the chapter of
St. Paul's, (fn. 72) who retained it until the benefice
became a vicarage in 1934 and the patronage passed
to the Crown. (fn. 73) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners
granted £1,500 in 1885 (fn. 74) for a vicarage house, for
which a site was found in 1887. An annuity of £95
was granted to the perpetual curate in 1887 (fn. 75) and
an annuity of £30 was added in 1907 to maintain an
assistant curate. The benefice was worth £285 a year
in 1903, by which date it had a chapel of ease,
St. Catherine's Neasden-cum-Kingsbury. (fn. 76) With
the development of southern Kingsbury after 1924
old St. Andrew's church could not accommodate
the expanding population and a large church from
Wells Street (St. Marylebone) was moved to an
adjacent site to become the parish church. (fn. 77)
The new church of ST. ANDREW was originally
built by S. W. Dawkes and Hamilton in 1847 and
moved to Kingsbury by W. A. Forsyth in 1933.
One of the earliest neo-Gothic churches, it is built
of limestone rubble with freestone dressings in the
Somerset Perpendicular style and consists of aisled
and clerestoried nave incorporating the chancel,
south porch, and north-west tower and spire. (fn. 78) As
a centre of Anglo-Catholicism, (fn. 79) it acquired many
interior embellishments. The metal chancel screen
and pulpit are by Street, who also designed the
reredos, which was sculptured by James Redfern.
J. L. Pearson designed the font-cover and W. Butterfield the lectern. Most of the windows are by
Clayton and Bell, except for the east window, a
modern one designed by Goddard and Gibbs to
replace a Pugin window, which was destroyed
during the Second World War. Eight bells were
presented to the church in 1880. A temporary
church hall, built near the old church after 1907,
was replaced by a permanent building in 1950. (fn. 80)
The parish of All Saints, Queensbury, which
grew out of a Home Mission, was created in 1932 as
a conventional district with a priest-in-charge. It
was formed from the old parishes of Kingsbury and
Little Stanmore, and includes all the area between
Honeypot Lane and Edgware Road, between
Camford Avenue in the north and Girton and
Homstall avenues in the south. In 1941 it became a
parochial district, the benefice becoming a vicarage
in the patronage of the Crown. Worship was
conducted in a hall in Dale Avenue, Little Stanmore,
then in a marquee erected as part of a mission in
Waltham Drive, and from 1938 in a wooden hut
built on the site of the marquee. The church of
ALL SAINTS, built next to the hall, was consecrated in 1954. Built by Romilly B. Craze, it is a
brick building in a plain style and has a nave,
chancel, north and south aisles, north-east chapel,
and north tower. (fn. 81)