Stratford Bow St Mary Middlesex Family History Guide
Stratford Bow St Mary is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Middlesex, created in 1719 from Stepney St Dunstan Ancient Parish; located on Bow Road.
Other places in the parish include: Old Ford.
Alternative names:
- Bow
- St Mary Bow
- St Mary at Stratford at Bow
- St Mary Stratford
- St Mary Stratford le Bow
- Stratford le Bow
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1538
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629; 1798
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Stratford St John, Essex
- Homerton
- Bromley
- Bethnal Green St James the Less
- South Hackney St John of Jerusalem
- Bethnal Green St Simon Zelotes
- Mile End Old Town Holy Trinity
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BOW, a parish and a subdistrict in Poplar district, Middlesex. The parish is called also Stratford-le-Bow; lies on the river Lea, and on the North London and Eastern Counties railways, within Tower Hamlets borough, in the eastern suburbs of London, 4 miles ENE of St. Pauls; includes the village of Stratford, the hamlet of Old Ford, and part of Victoria Park; and has a station of Bow on the North London railway, a station of Stratford on the Eastern Counties railway, and post-offices of Bow, Bow-Road, and Old Ford, under London E. Acres, 809. Real property, £78,460. Pop., in 1841, 4,626; in 1861, 11,590. Houses, 1,848.
The name Bow alludes to a bow-shaped, three-arched bridge across the Lea, built by Matilda, the queen of Henry I. and not taken down till 1834; and the name Stratford alludes to a ford in the Lea, on the line of the Roman road or “stratum” to Layton.
A new bridge, in lieu of the ancient one, with one oblique arch of 70 feet, was erected in 1839, at a cost of £11,000.
Bow was once famous for cream and cakes; it also carried on an extensive manufacture of porcelain; and it had a notable annual fair which became so great a nuisance, that it was suppressed by parliament. It now has dye-houses, large breweries, and the East London waterworks; and takes a character from the proximity of the India docks.
The parish was formerly a chapelry to Stepney, and became parochial in 1717. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London. Value, £349. Patron, the Bishop of London.
The church was built in the time of Henry II.; presents a curious mixture of Norman and early English; and has a low tower and an eight-sided corner turret.
The vicarage of Old Ford is a separate benefice.
A Baptist chapel, in the Byzantine style, at a cost of nearly £7,000, was built in 1867. There are other dissenting chapels, two endowed schools with £27 and £254, and charities £170.
The subdistrict contains also the parish of Bromley St. Leonard. Pop., 35,667.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Middlesex
- Civil Registration District: Poplar
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (London Division)
- Diocese: London
- Rural Deanery: Not created until 1858
- Poor Law Union: Poplar
- Hundred: Ossulstone (Tower Division)
- Province: Canterbury