Inventory Site Record

The still rural hamlet of Wennington has existed from at least 969AD and there was a church here by the C11th. St Mary and St Peter's Church, a C12th stone and flint building, was rebuilt in the C13th and has a C15th tower. Although the church has been much restored in the C19th and C20th, the doorway dates from the C12th church. Among the monuments in the churchyard is that of amateur mathematician Henry Perigal (d.1898), who discovered the proof of Pythagoras' Theorum in 1830, the diagram engraved on his monument. An inscription records his Huguenot descent and states that he 'investigated and illustrated the laws of compound circular motion'.

Previous / Other name:

Wennington Parish Church

Site location:

Wennington Road/Church Lane, Wennington

Postcode:

RM13

What 3 Words:

farm.charge.round

Type of site:

Churchyard

Borough:

Havering

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

unrestricted

Special conditions:

Facilities:

Events:

Public transport:

Rail: Rainham then bus. Bus: 372

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

01/09/2009

Last minor changes:

07/03/2025

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.rainhamparishchurch.org.uk

There are records of the hamlet of Wennington in 969ADand there was a church here by 1042-4, when Edward the Confessor, who then owned the manor of 'Winintuna' confirmed the parish as belonging to Westminster Abbey. The manor was later subdivided into separate manors of Wennington Hall, Leventhorpe and Noke. Wennington Hall, a C19th building remodelled in the C20th, remains on the site of the earlier manor houses, once held in the C14th by Sir John Gildesburgh, Speaker in the parliament of Richard II. The small C12th stone and flint parish church of St Mary and St Peter was rebuilt in the C13th and has a C15th tower, but the doorway dates from the original church. It has been much restored in the C19th and C20th. The Friends of Wennington Church was set up in the 1980s when the church was in a bad state of repair and threatened with redundancy, but restored following successful fund-raising.

In the churchyard is the monument of Henry Perigal (1801-98), 'an amazing mathematical tomb' (Weinreb and Hibbert). Perigal, who worked for a London stockbroker, was an amateur mathematician and discovered the proof of Pythagoras' Theorem in 1830, a diagram of which he had printed on his business card. It was later carved on his memorial in Wennington churchyard, where his ashes were buried following his cremation at Woking. The inscription on the tomb records that he was descended from a Huguenot family that fled France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1688 and also states 'he was a learned and ingenious geometrician. He investigated and illustrated the laws of compound circular motion.' Known as 'Cyclops' he was Treasurer of the R Met S & Co for 40 years.

The parish is now joined with that of St Helen and St Giles Rainham (q.v.).

On 19 July 2022 Wennington Village suffered a devastating wildfire on the hottest day of the year, one of a number of wildfires around the country widely acknowledged to be the result of climate change. A number of houses on Wennington Road were destroyed and some residents sheltered in St Mary and St Peter's Church, which was undamaged although it was filled with smoke and the graveyard vegetation was burned. As a result of the fire it was proposed to registerWennington Green (q.v.) as a protected space following a visit to Wennington by London’s Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience, Dr Fiona Twycross, in May 2023, and in 2024 the Green was registered as a Village Green.

Sources consulted:

Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, 'The London Encyclopaedia' (Macmillan, revised ed. 1993); LB Havering Listed Buildings data; John Drury, 'Treasures of Havering', Ian Henry Publications, 1998; Surendra Verma, 'The Little Book of Maths Theorums, Theories & Things', Orient Publishing, c.2005 (E-book); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wennington_wildfire

Grid ref:

TQ539809 (553980,180940)

Size in hectares:

0.25

Site ownership:

Church

Site management:

Church

Date(s):

medieval

Designer(s):

Listed structures:

LBII*: St Mary and St Peter's Church

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

No

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

Yes

In Conservation Area:

No

Tree Preservation Order:

No

Nature Conservation Area:

Yes - Local Importance

Green Belt:

Yes

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

No

Other LA designation:

None

St Mary and St Peter's Church and churchyard, September 2009. Photograph Sally Williams

Click a photo to enlarge.