Holy Trinity Churchyard, Northwood

Northwood is the north part of the parish of Ruislip, on high ground that was the site of a manorial grange referred to in 1248, now occupied by The Grange, a C15th timber-framed building purchased in 1934 for public use. In the C18th Northwood consisted of only a few cottages along Rickmansworth Road but developed particularly following the opening of the station in 1887 and with its good views the area became popular. The church designed by S S Teulon was built in 1854 to serve the growing population, financed by the Grosvenor family who owned Moor Park in Hertfordshire, the exterior church wall having a plaque commemorating the first stone laid on 12 October 1852 by Lady Robert Grosvenor. It is a flint faced building with the north aisle added in 1894 and the south aisle and baptistery in 1927. It has good stained glass, particularly the Grosvenor memorial windows by Morris & Co, 1887, possibly by Burne-Jones.

The picturesque churchyard has family tombs of the Grosvenor family of Lord Ebury including a bronze plaque with angel of 1898. The architect, Charles Harrison Townsend, famous for the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Horniman Museum, lived in Northwood and is buried here with his sister Pauline (d.1940). Also buried here is Sir Robert Morier (d.1893), once Russian Ambassador, whose grave features a large jasper cross in wood, given to him by the Czar of Russia. The lych-gate to the churchyard was erected in commemoration of the coronation of Edward VII.