St Marks Parish was built by Dove Bros of Islington to the design of architect Chester Cheston. The land on which it stands was given by the Lord of the Manor, W.A. Tyssen Amhurst, for whom Mr Cheston was surveyor.

The building work began in 1864 with the foundation stone being laid by the Earl of Shewsbury. The church was finished and consecrated in 1870 although the tower was added seven years later to the design of E.L. Blackburne.

When Joseph Green Pilkington becamee Vicar in 1870 he described St Marks as brutally ugly and in his 25 years added most of the embellishments we see today: the font, lectern, organ, intricate oak screen and mosiacs, pulpit, tower, eight bells, barometer and a chiming clock, as well as the stained glass windows.

The barometer in the tower is unique in England and believed to be the only working barometer in Europe. Unique in the Bristish Isles are the angel windows in the roof. We are meant through them to imagine the angels of heaven looking down on us!

The stained glass windows on either side of the church show stories from the Old Testament and the twelve apostles. The windows high above the altar follow the life of Christ and above the main aisle.

Henry Speechly, the famous organ builder, lived nearby in Amhurst Road. He would call in daily to care for the three manual organs which he built for St Marks in 1871.

Behind the altar the mosiac, with approximately 27,000 pieces, pictures the last supper and was given anonymously to St Marks.

The congregation at St Mark's has always been proud of the building and looked after it with love.