Bow Church
St Mary's Church, Bow
Bow Church in 2008
Bow Church
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Website	www.bow.church
History
Founded	17 November 1311
Administration
Division	Tower Hamlets
Diocese	London
Parish	Parish of St Mary and Holy Trinity, Stratford, Bow
Clergy
Rector	Tim May

Bow Church is the parish church ofSt Mary and Holy Trinity, Stratford, Bow.^[1][2] It is located on acentral reservation site inBow Road (part of theA11), inBow,^[3] in theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets. There has been a church on the same site for approximately 700 years. The church was bombed in theSecond World War, and the bell tower was reconstructed just after the war.

The church (as achapel of ease) was licensed by bishopRalph Baldock of London on 17 November 1311 for the people ofStratford-at-Bow within the parish ofStepney. Before this, local people were obliged to travel toSt Dunstan's, Stepney, to attend church. This was a difficult journey - especially in winter - when the road was cut off by flooding. In the 14th century, they felt confident and wealthy enough to petition for their own place of worship. The chapel of ease allowed them to practise their religion locally, but they were still obliged to attend St Dunstan's at Stepney on religious holidays and to pay for its upkeep. In 1497, following a dispute about the terms of this arrangement, an agreement was then reached, whereby the people of Bow promised to acknowledge themselves as parishioners of Stepney and agreed to pay 24shillings annually for repairs of the mother church, and to dispense with their attendance there, except on the feast ofSaint Dunstan, and on the Wednesday inWhitsunweek, when they were to accompany the rest of the parishioners in procession toSaint Paul's Cathedral.^[4]

In 1556 at Bow, during the reign ofMary I of England, and under the authority ofEdmund Bonner, Bishop of London, many people were brought by cart fromNewgate and burned at the stake in front of Bow Church in one of the many swings of theEnglish Reformation. These included the thirteenStratford Martyrs.^[5]

In 1719, the parish became independent and St Mary, Stratford, Bow, was consecrated. The parish also included theOld Ford area which has also been known as North Bow.

In 1767, the church became the resting place of colonelPhilip Ludwell III, the earliest known convert toEastern Orthodoxy in America. Although the church was Anglican, he was buried according to the funeral rites of the Orthodox Church.^[6] The last burial in the churchyard was in 1854, and it was re-ordered as a public garden by theMetropolitan Public Gardens Association in 1894, laid out by the MPGA's landscape gardenerFanny Wilkinson, who took advice fromCR Ashbee of theSociety for the Protection of Ancient Buildings as to which tombstones should be preserved. The eastern section of the churchyard was laid out as a garden by Wilkinson's successorMadeline Agar in 1911. More recent input by the MPGA has been the provision of 1,500 spring bulbs.^[7]

The present building is thought to have a 14th-century structure, the tower was added in the 15th century. It is constructed ofKentish Ragstone with brick additions. Many of the windows are in the lateperpendicular style. Inside the church, there are monuments including those to Grace Amcottes, died 1551; Alice Coborn, died 1689; and Prisca Coborn, died 1701. The southaisle was replaced in 1794. In 1896, thechancel roof collapsed, prompting a major restoration by the architect Osborn C Hills. The church suffered considerable bomb damage during theLondon Blitz. The site was visited byQueen Elizabeth in 1951 to mark the start of a campaign to restore the church, the work was overseen by the architectH S Goodhart-Rendel. The Gothic-style iron railings around the churchyard were reinstated in 1984. The church was givenGrade B listed building designation on 19 July 1950.^[8] and is now Grade II*.^[9]

It gives its name to the nearbyBow Church DLR station. Just outside the churchyard is a statue byAlbert Bruce Joy of theLiberalPrime Minister,William Ewart Gladstone, which was paid for by the wealthymatch manufacturer, Theodore H Bryant ofBryant and May in 1882.^[10]

The church is also used as the central image in the crest for the Bow masonic lodge, founded by the Rev Francis Mettrick, the then Rector of the church, in 1961.

The church is active today.^[11]

During 2011, the church celebrated 700 years of Christian life on the site.^[12]

Bow became an independent parish in 1719. From the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, the parish was a college living ofBrasenose College, Oxford, with all rectors from Parker to Driffield being from Brasenose College.^[13]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(March 2024)

• 1719–1740† Robert Warren^[14]
• 1740 James Parker
• 1740–1770† Thomas Foxley
• 1771–1801† Allan Harrison Eccles
• 1802–1807†Samuel Henshall
• 1808–1809Frodsham Hodson(later Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford)
• 1809–1843† Hamlett Harrison^[15]
• 1844–1880 George Townshend Driffield^[16]
• 1880–1892 William Pimblett Insley^[17]
• 1892–1898 Marmaduke Hare(later Dean ofTrinity Cathedral,Davenport, Iowa, USA)
• 1899 Manley Power
• 1932–1951† George Ansell^[18]
• fl. 1961 Francis Mettrick
• 1989–2011†Michael Peet
• 2012–2018 Debbie Frazer^[19]
• 2019– Timothy G. May

†Rector died in post

51°31′43″N0°01′01″W / 51.5287°N 0.0169°W /51.5287; -0.0169

• Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Grade II* listed churches in London
• Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London
• Diocese of London
• Bow, London

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