STAINES, a market-town and parish, in the hundred
of SPELTHORNE, county of MIDDLESEX, 10 miles
(W. S.W.) from Brentford, and 17 (W. S. W.) from
London, containing 1957 inhabitants. This place has
by some been conjectured to derive its name from a
Roman milliarium, which is stated to have been placed
here, and the traces of a Roman road pointing towards
Staines' bridge, mentioned by Dr. Stukeley, who also
states the town to have been surrounded by a ditch,
may in some degree strengthen this conjecture; but the
more general opinion is, that its name is owing to a
stone which, standing on the banks of the river near it,
marks the extent of the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor
of London, as conservator of the Thames; the inscription
on it bears date 1284. An army of Danes, on
their way from Oxford (which they had burned) to
their ships, crossed the river here, in 1009, on hearing
that an army was marching from London to oppose
them. The town, which has been much improved of
late years, consists principally of one wide street, containing
some good houses, terminating at the river
Thames, across which is an iron bridge of one arch.
In lieu of this, which has been considered unsafe, a
handsome stone bridge has been erected, and a new
street formed in a line with it, which will avoid the
sharp turn over the former, where many accidents have
occurred. The market is on Friday: the market-house,
standing near the bridge, is a small building surmounted
by a spire. There are fairs on May llth and September
19th. The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacies
of Ashford and Laleham annexed, in the archdeaconry
of Middlesex, and diocese of London, rated in the
king's books at £ 12. 3. 4., and in the patronage, of the
Crown. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, erected in
1631, by Inigo Jones, has been recently rebuilt; it is a
neat structure, with a square embattled tower; the interior,
which is well arranged and handsomely fitted up,
contains three hundred and forty-four free sittings, towards
defraying the expense of which, the Incorporated
Society for the building and enlargement of churches
and chapels granted the sum of £250. There are places
of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Independents.
Here are a National and a Lancasterian
school for boys, and a National school and a school of
Industry for girls. Duncroft House, in which King John
is said to have slept, the night after he signed Magna
Charta at Runymede, is in this parish. A forest anciently
extended from Staines to Hounslow, but part of
it, consisting of about three hundred acres, has been
enclosed.