This beautiful church was designed by the eminent architect Charles Parker in an Italianate style, with early Christian and Renaissance influences. The cost was met by Alexander Raphael, a Catholic Armenian whose family came from India who became the first Roman Catholic elected Sheriff of London after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
For more information visit on this building visit www.explorechurches.org/church/st-raphael-kingston-thames
Outstandingly rich, colourful and layered with history, the chapel's vaulted ceiling was installed by Henry VIII in the 1530s and is the grand culmination of Tudor opulence at Hampton Court. Queen Anne refurbished the interior of the chapel in the early 1700s.
The present St Mary's was opened in 1895, but a medieval stone and tile in the porch are clues to the parish's much longer story. Cuddington is believed to mean ‘Cuda's farm'. Cuda was perhaps an Anglo-Saxon who founded a settlement in today's Nonsuch Park. The first church was built of wood, before the Norman Conquest. It was replaced with a stone church around 1100, rebuilt around 1250; this medieval church stood until 1538.
‘After 83 years Donhead finally has its own Chapel and, as a Jesuit School, is now complete' GC McGrath, Headmaster.
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