Saint Matthew, Ashford : Church Road, Ashford, Surrey

COVERING DATES OF REGISTERS DEPOSITED

November 1699 - April 1710; April 1760 - February 1891 Baptisms

April 1873 - June 1891; May 1899 - May 1905 Baptisms solemnized at West London District Schools

1699 - 1708; November [1754] - January 1904 Marriages

February 1699/1700 - March 1709/10; April 1760 - December 1885 Burials

September 1696 - April 1710 Baptisms, marriages and burials at Staines

April 1696 - May 1710 Baptisms, marriages and burials at Laleham

INCUMBENT

Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials

Registers of baptisms

Registers of marriages

Register of burials

Register of banns of marriage

Marriage licences

Church services registers

Parish boundaries

Incumbent's papers concerning benefice and other matters

Tithes

CHURCHWARDENS

Churchwardens' accounts

St. Matthew's Church

St. Matthew's Churchyard

St. Hilda's Church

St. Benedict's Mission Church

VESTRY

PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL

PAROCHIAL CHARITIES

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR

SURVEYORS OF THE HIGHWAY

MAPS OF ASHFORD AND HANWORTH

INCUMBENT

Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials

Registers of baptisms

Registers of marriages

Register of burials

Register of banns of marriage

Marriage licences

Church services registers

Parish boundaries

Incumbent's papers concerning benefice and other matters

Tithes

CHURCHWARDENS

Churchwardens' accounts

St. Matthew's Church

St. Matthew's Churchyard

St. Hilda's Church

St. Benedict's Mission Church

VESTRY

PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL

PAROCHIAL CHARITIES

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR

SURVEYORS OF THE HIGHWAY

MAPS OF ASHFORD AND HANWORTH

<span class="wrapper"><p>OVERSEERS OF THE POOR</p> <p>For Ashford poor rates see the account books of Staines Overseers of the Poor 1699-1754 (ref. DRO2/E2/1-2).</p></span>

Parish records of St. Matthew, Ashford, Middlesex deposited in the Greater London Record Office, 40 Northamton Road, London EC1R OHB by the Vicar, 28 March 1989 (Acc 2678)

Until the mid 19th Century, Ashford, like Laleham, was a chapelry of Staines. Ashford Church was served by a curate appointed by the Vicar of Staines. In 1860 Asford became a perpetual curacy in the gift of the Lord Chancellor and in 1865 it bacame a vicarage.

Ashford Church was at one time dedicated to St. Michael. In 1796 the church was pulled down and replaced by a brick built church on the same site. The present church of St. Matthew's, designed by Butterfield, was built in 1857 - 1859 immediately adjacent to the 1796 church which was demolished on the completion of the new church.

In 1872 the West London District Schools opened in Ashford. These were poor law schools which accommodated 800 children from Fulham, Hammersmith, Paddington and some of the Westminster parishes. The school was taken over by the London County Council in 1930 and was renamed Ashford Residential School. It closed in 1955.

The Victoria county History of Middlesex volume II published in 1911 described Ashford as being, until a few years ago, almost completely rural. "Now ..... an entirely new town has arisen about the station to accommodate a population of the artisan class. To the east of the older part of the town is a group of private houses standing in their own gardens". A new church, St. Hilda's was built in 1913 on the corner of Stanwell Road and Woodthorpe Road to serve the population living near the station. It was completed and consecrated in 1928, was assigned a conventional district and eventually in c. 1973 became a separate parish.

The mission church of St. Benedict in Napier Road provided for the rapidly growing district of Ashford Common to the south-east of the parish.

St. Hilda's is a daughter church of St. Matthew, Ashford situated at the corner of Stanwell Road and Woodthorpe Road. A church hall was built on the site initially, followed by the first portion of the church in 1913. St. Hilda's was completed and consecrated in 1928. It was licensed for marriages in 1939 and assigned a conventional district. It is now a separate parish.

ST. BENEDICT'S MISSION CHURCH: A mission church had been established at Ashford Common by 1911 to serve the rapidly growing population. In 1930 a site was acquired for a permanent church in Napier Road. In 1936 a curate was placed in charge of the church. On 1 May 1940 St. Benedict's ceased to be part of Ashford Parish and was handed over to the Vicar of St. Saviour, Upper Sunbury.