The Brick Church, Stanmore

The Brick Church 1632-1850
Dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, which now stands in ruins alongside the present Church. Sir John Wolstenholme paid for the building, and Mrs Barbara Burnell, Sir Thomas Lake and Mr Robinson, Church Warden, gave the land. It was consecrated by William Laud, then Bishop of London. In his Diary for 1632 he wrote, "Julii 17, Tuesday, I consecrated the church at Stanmore Magna in Middlesex, built by Sir Jo Wolstenham". After the Civil War, William Laud, then Archbishop of Canterbury, was put on trial for High Treason. Three instances of chapel consecrations, (considered a papist tradition), were amongst the charges put to the Archbishop, the second of which was "..a Chappel of Sir John Wolstenham's Building". Laud replied "'Tis true I consecrated that too, but that was a parish Church, Built in the place where he was born, and it was in my Diocess, and so the work was proper for me". But all his protestations were in vain, Archbishop William Laud lost his head on Tower Hill scaffold on 10 January 1645.