Church of St Mary

St Mary's Church on Neasden Lane, in Willesden in the London Borough of Brent, is one of the most ancient churches in London — there has been a place of worship on its site since the year 938, in the reign of the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelstan. A Church of England parish church whose building dates from the thirteenth century, it was throughout the Middle Ages the home of the famous shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, a great centre of pilgrimage destroyed at the Reformation and restored in the twentieth century. With its Saxon origins, its medieval fabric and its revived shrine, St Mary's gathers more than a thousand years of London's history into one building.

According to the parish's own tradition, there has been a place of worship on this site since 938, and a church here was recorded in 1181. Much of what we know of the early church comes from the monks of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London, who visited and wrote about it — for the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's owned the rectory of Willesden, an ownership that derived from King Æthelstan, who either gave the land to the cathedral's clergy or confirmed its transfer to them. In 1200 the monks recorded that the church had been enlarged with side aisles and a tower; in 1217 the rectory was rented to the Archdeacon of Middlesex; and from the thirteenth century the records mention the statues of the Virgin Mary and the rich furnishings of the church.

It was as a shrine of the Virgin that medieval Willesden became famous. From the thirteenth century, a great devotion grew up around an image of Our Lady of Willesden, associated with a holy well or spring on the site — for healing wells and Marian shrines were among the most popular destinations of medieval pilgrimage. By 1297 the church contained a large wooden crucifix flanked by images of the Virgin and St John, with further images of St John the Baptist, St Nicholas and St Catherine, and the donations of pilgrims made it notably well-furnished. The shrine of Our Lady of Willesden became one of the noted Marian shrines of the London area, drawing pilgrims to pray before its statue.

All this came to an end at the Reformation. In 1538, in the reign of Henry VIII, the statue of Our Lady of Willesden was taken out of the church and burned at Chelsea — along with the images from Walsingham and other famous shrines — and in 1550 more of the church's treasures, its vestments, altar cloths and chalice, were taken away. The shrine was destroyed and the pilgrimage ended. Yet the church survived, and in the early twentieth century the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden was restored, so that devotion to Our Lady has returned to the ancient site after nearly four hundred years.

The medieval church was restored in the Victorian period, in 1850, 1872 and 1893, and it preserves features of great antiquity, including a Norman font. Today St Mary's continues as an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of London, and as a restored shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, it remains a place of pilgrimage and devotion. As one of the oldest churches in London, with its thousand-year history and its revived shrine, it is a remarkable survival amid the modern suburbs of north-west London.

The church stands on Neasden Lane in Willesden, in the Borough of Brent, in north-west London. The surrounding district is one of the most diverse in London, and nearby are the spectacular BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir at Neasden — a magnificent Hindu temple of carved marble and limestone — the Welsh Harp reservoir with its open water and birdlife, the great stadium and arena at Wembley, the Grand Union Canal, and the wider attractions of north-west London, with central London a short distance to the south-east.

From a Saxon church of 938 given to St Paul's by King Æthelstan, through the medieval shrine of Our Lady of Willesden and its holy well, the destruction of the shrine at the Reformation and its restoration in the twentieth century, St Mary's Church gathers more than a thousand years of London's history into one building. A Church of England parish church and a restored Marian shrine, it remains the living parish church of Willesden — one of the most ancient churches in London, and a place of pilgrimage once more.