Background

There has been a church on the site since Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 times and St Chad is even thought to have preached there. The base of an early preaching cross was found in the mid-1980s during work at the back of the church. The parish formerly covered what is now Smethwick (North Harborne), all of current Harborne and even parts of Quinton (Ridgeacre).

The present building is Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, dating from the 1860s by architect Yeoville Thomason

Yeoville Thomason

H. R. Yeoville Thomason was an architect in Birmingham, England. He was born in Edinburgh to a Birmingham family. Thomason set up his own practice in Birmingham 1853-1854....

. Elihu Burritt

Elihu Burritt

Elihu Burritt was an American philanthropist and social activist.-Biography:He was born December 8, 1810, in the town of New Britain, Connecticut....

, who was living in Harborne at the time was on the committee that oversaw the restoration

Victorian restoration

Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...

. The tower is far older and is all that remains of the medieval church. It is believed to date from the 14th century. The sanctuary was rebuilt during 1974/5 after a fire.
It is a Grade II listed building.

Burials

• The artist David Cox
  David Cox (artist)
  - David Cox Junior :David Cox had a son of the same name who followed his calling as a watercolour painter. He was born in Dulwich, but educated in Hereford. He exhibited in London from 1827, although today he is known mainly through association with his father. He died in Streatham on 4 December...
  
   - there is also a sanctuary memorial window to him.
• watercolour artist Thomas Baker
  Thomas Baker (artist)
  Thomas Baker was a Midlands landscape painter and watercolourist often known as "Baker of Leamington" or "Landscape Baker"....
  
   is buried next to David Cox.
• Anne Chamberlain
  Anne Chamberlain
  Anne Vere Chamberlain, née Anne de Vere Cole was the wife of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.Chamberlain was born to Major William Utting Cole, of West Woodhay House; he died in India of cholera while she was young...
  
  , wife of Neville Chamberlain
  Neville Chamberlain
  Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
  
  , Prime Minister
  Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
  
  .
• Bob Brettle
  Bob Brettle
  Robert "Bob" Brettle, born at Portobello, near Edinburgh, in January 1832, was a successful bare-knuckle boxer active in Birmingham, England, during the 1850s...
  
  , boxer

List of Vicars

• The Ven. Ralph Creed Meredith
  Ralph Creed Meredith
  The Ven. Ralph Creed Meredith, M.A., was an Anglican Cleric who succeeded Edward Keble Talbot as Chaplain to His Majesty, King George VI and afterwards Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II...
  
    1919-1920
• Michael Counsell 1976 - 1989
• C.J.Evans (Fr.Jo) 1992- 2008

Bells

The bells were purchased from the church of Bishop Ryder in Deritend and installed by John Taylor & Co

John Taylor Bellfounders

John Taylor & Co, formerly trading as Taylors, Eayre & Smith Ltd and John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd, and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry, located in Loughborough in the United Kingdom.The company manufactures bells for use in...

. The ring of eight was dedicated on 2 March 1963. The tenor bell weighs nearly 13 cwt

Hundredweight

The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...

 and the ring is in F#.

Organ

The organ dates from 1975, replacing a previous instrument destroyed in a fire. The organ specification was designed by George Miles, the church organist, and can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register

List of organists

• Franklyn Mountford 1903 - ca. 1912 - ????
• George Miles
  George Miles
  George Theophilus Miles FRCO was born in Pangbourne, Berkshire on 23 February 1913 and died in Birmingham on 26 March 1988. He was an English organist and Organ Teacher based in Birmingham.-Education:...
  
  1946 - 1988
• Ian Ledsham 1993 - 2000
• Victoria Gravenor 2001 - 2004
• David Friel 2005–present