Barnes, Surrey
Historical Description
Barnes, a parish in Surrey, on the L. & S.W.R., 7 miles from London, on the river Thames. It contains the village of Barnes and the hamlet of Barnes-Elms or Barn-Elms. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office at Barnes Green. The area is 909 acres of land and 119 of water; population, 8445. The manor was given by King Athelstane to the canons of St Paul's, London, and was then and afterwards called Berne. A tract in the N, 1¼ mile long, is engirt by a semicircular sweep of the Thames. Barnes Common, contiguous to this on the S, comprises about 500 acres, and lies lower than the level of the Thames' spring tide. Barn-Elms House was the residence of Sir Francis Walsingham, visited by Queen Elizabeth; afterwards the residence of Heydeggur, George II.'s master of the revels, visited by the king; afterwards the property of Sir R. C. Hoare the antiquary. It is now a modern mansion. A house in the vicinity, the "Queen's Dairy," was the residence of the celebrated bookseller Jacob Tonson, and the meeting-place of the Kitcat Club, adorned with portraits of the members painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. This house has gone to ruin, but the portraits have been preserved. Cowley the poet, Fielding the novelist, and Handel the composer, were residents of Barnes; Bishop Wilson was for some time rector; and Sir William Bliyard the surgeon was a native. The duel between the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury in January 1667-68, was fought near Barn-Elms; and the assassination of the Count and the Countess D'Antraigucs, in 1812, was done in the parish. A suspension bridge, 750 feet long, takes a thoroughfare hence across the Thames to Hammersmith; and a three-arched iron bridge, each arch 100 feet in span, takes across a loop-line of railway from the Barnes station toward the Windsor railway near Hounslow. The West Middlesex Waterworks Company have reservoirs in this parish covering an area of about 16 acres. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London; net value, £350 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. The church was built in 1189, and is mainly Early English. A recess, with rose bushes on its S exterior, marks the grave of Edward Rose, a citizen of London who died in 1653, leaving a bequest of £20 to the poor of the parish, on condition that his monumental tablet should be kept in repair, and have rose bushes trained around it. Holy Trinity Church, situated in Castelnau, was erected in 1868; it is a building of stone and flint, and has about 300 sittings. The living is a vicarage; net value, £380 with residence, in the gift of the Rector of Barnes. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, and a mission church. At Elm Bank Barnes there is a handsome modern church called St Michael and Angels, which was consecrated in 1893 as a chapel of ease to the parish church.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Surrey | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Barnes St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Brixton | |
| Poor Law union | Richmond |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Cemeteries
There is a cemetery on the Common, formed in 1855 and consisting of 2&frac;12; acres: it contains a chapel, and is under the control of the rector and churchwardens.
Church Records
The register of St. Mary, for baptisms and burials dates from the year 1538; marriages, 1540.
The register of Holy Trinity dates from the year 1888, when the district chapelry was constituted.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Surrey History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Surrey online.
Churches
Church of England
Holy Trinity, Castelnau
Holy Trinity church, in Castelnau, near Hammersmith Bridge, erected in 1868, at a cost of £2,290, is a building of stone and flint, consisting of chancel, nave, west porch and a western belfry containing one bell: there are 250 sittings.
St. Mary, Church Road (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an edifice of stone and flint, with an Early English chancel, and a western tower of red brick with stone quoins, originally dating from the 15th century and containing 8 bells: in the church is a brass dated 1508; a monument of white marble to Sir Richard Hoare bart. of Barn Elms, d. 11 Oct. 1787; and a memorial to the late Vice-Chancellor Sir Lancelot Shadwell kt. d. 10 Aug. 1850: on the exterior south wall of the nave is a stone tablet, inscribed to Edward Rose, a citizen of London, who died in 1653, and left to the poor of the parish £20 to buy an acre of land, on condition that the tablet should be maintained with a rose tree growing beneath it: in 1906 the church was enlarged by the addition of a north aisle and the rebuilding of the chancel. In the churchyard is a fine yew tree.
St. Michael and All Angels, Elm Bank
The church of St. Michael and All Angels, Elm Bank, a chapel of ease to the parish church, consecrated 25 Jan. 1892, is an edifice of brick, with stone dressings, in the Romanesque style, and affords 700 sittings.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel, Stanton Road
The Baptist chapel in Stanton road, built in 1868, has 300 sittings.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel, White Hart Lane
Wesleyan Chapel, Barnes Green
Roman Catholic
St. Osmund's Chapel
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Barnes from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Barnes (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Surrey is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Barnes are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Surrey papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Surrey, 1662-1668 is available on the Heraldry page.