St Mary Woolchurch Haw

St Mary Woolchurch Haw was a parish church in the City of London, destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and not rebuilt.^[2]

History

The church of St Mary Woolchurch Haw was an ancient foundation, dating from the time of William I, when it was given to the Abbot and Convent of St John's, Colchester. It became the property of the crown after the dissolution.

The name is said to be derived from that a beam that was once fixed in the churchyard, which was used for weighing wool. The church was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI.^[3] At the end of the sixteenth century John Stow described it as "reasonably fair and large",^[4] and John Strype recorded that it was "richly repaired and beautified, at the Charge of the Parishioners" in 1629.^[5]

St Mary Woolchurch Haw was one of the 86 parish churches destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. In 1670 a Rebuilding Act was passed and a committee set up under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren to decide which would be rebuilt.^[6] Fifty-one were chosen, but St Mary Woolchurch Haw was not among them.^[7] The parish was united to that of St Mary Woolnoth.

The Mansion House now stands on the site.^[3]

References

1. ^ Dates of parish
2. ^ "The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
3. ^ ^{a b} White, J.G. (1901). The Churches and Chapels of Old London. London. pp. 133–4. http://www.archive.org/details/churcheschapelso00whituoft. 
4. ^ "A Survey of London, Vol I" Stow,J p446 : Originally 1598- this edn,London, A.Fullarton & Co,1890
5. ^ "Walbrook Ward. St. Mary Woollchurch". The Stuart London Project, Humanities Research Institute, The University of Sheffield. http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book2_195. Retrieved 27 September 2011. 
6. ^ "Wren" Whinney,M London Thames & Hudson, 1971 ISBN 0500201129
7. ^ "The City of London Churches" Betjeman, J. Andover, Pitkin, 1967 (rpnt 1992) ISBN 0853725659