St Mary Magdalen Woolwich

St Mary Magdalene Woolwich
View from the northwest with crucifix
Location	Woolwich, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Central
Website	www.achurchnearyou.com/woolwich-st-mary-magdalene/
History
Dedication	Mary Magdalene
Dedicated	9 May 1740
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade B listed
Years built	1732-1739
Administration
Parish	Woolwich St. Mary Magdalene with St. Michael and All Angels
Archdeaconry	Lewisham and Greenwich
Diocese	Diocese of Southwark
Province	Province of Canterbury
Clergy
Rector	The Revd Jesse van der Valk

St Mary Magdalene Woolwich is an 18th-century Anglican church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene in Woolwich, southeast London, England.

Christianity in Woolwich goes back to the Early Middle Ages. In 2015 Oxford Archaeology discovered a Saxon burial site in the area close to the Thames east of Woolwich Ferry. It contained 76 skeletons from the late 7th or early 8th century. The absence of grave deposits indicates that this was an early Christian settlement. The first church in Woolwich was probably pre-Norman conquest and dedicated to Saint Lawrence. It stood on a promontory about 37 m north of the present-day church, more or less where the belvedere overlooking the river now is. The church was slightly separate from the early riverside settlement in Old Woolwich. From the early 10th till the mid-12th century Woolwich was ruled by the abbots of St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent, probably as a result of a gift from Ælfthryth, daughter of King Alfred and Countess of Flanders. Around 1100 Henry I gave the church to Gundulf of Rochester, bishop and prior of Rochester Cathedral. It was probably around this time that the church was rebuilt in stone. The church tower with walls of chalk and flint was partly excavated in 1970.

The parish church was first dedicated to Saint Lawrence, then, in the 15th century, to the Virgin Mary and, a century later, to Saint Mary Magdalene. The first known rector was John Chaplain, mentioned in 1182. In the late 14th century rector William de Prene rebuilt the bell tower. In the early 16th century rector John Sweetyng assisted in building the Great Harry at Woolwich Dockyard. Rectors of Woolwich in the late 17th century included Thomas Lindsay (1686-1694) and Philip Stubbs (1694-1699).