St Matthew, Ashford
St Matthew, Ashford
St Matthew’s is a Grade II parish church on Church Road, Ashford, historically in Middlesex and now in the Borough of Spelthorne, in the Diocese of London, an early Decorated Gothic church by William Butterfield.
- Location
- Ashford, Greater London
- Country
- England
- County
- Greater London
- City / town
- Ashford
- Address
- Church Road, Ashford, Greater London, TW15 2NY
- Postcode
- TW15 2NY
- Built
- 1856–58; tower 1865
- Consecrated
- 26 June 1858
- Architect
- William Butterfield
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Matthew
- Diocese
- London
- Parish
- St Matthew, Ashford
- Grade
- II
- Style
- Decorated Gothic
- Materials
- Ragstone with Bath stone dressings and bands; tiled roofs
- Grid reference
- TQ 072 715
- Opening hours
- Open Monday to Friday 11am to 12pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets in church
Overview
Historic England lists the church as 1856–58 with a tower of 1865, by Butterfield, in Decorated Gothic. The fabric is ragstone with Bath stone dressings and bands and tiled roofs. The plan is an aisled nave, chancel and south chapel, with a south-west tower and porch under a pyramidal roof. The tower has clasping buttresses and lancet bell openings. Aisles have cusped lancets; the clerestory has two-light Decorated windows; the east window is of three lights. The interior has a five-bay arcade on octagonal piers and a chancel arch on octagonal responds. A brass to Edward Wooden and his wife (1525) and a coffin plate to the Earl of Kinnoul (d. 1758) survive from the earlier chapel.
The foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1857 by Colonel J. S. Brownrigg; the church was consecrated on 26 June 1858. It replaced a chapel of St Michael, first recorded in 1293, which stood about fifty yards east of the present east window and had become too small after the railway reached Ashford Halt in 1848. The parish is now joined with St Mary the Virgin, Stanwell.