The Ordnance Survey Map of 1866 shows East Acton as rural. Apart from footpaths, the only thoroughfares were East Acton Lane, Churchfield Road, Friars Place Lane, Crown Lane (now Bromyard Avenue) and Old Oak Common Lane; to the south lay the Uxbridge Road. The largest buildings were the Almshouses (from which boats on the Thames at Chiswick could be seen), the Manor Farm (now Goldsmiths' Close), the Manor House, and a big complex of farm buildings facing the north end of Crown Lane. This last was called Glendun, and it later became the club-house for the Acton golf course. There were clusters of cottages at the east end of the village and one of these rows, Orchard Place, survives today. South of the fields on which St.Dunstan's was to be built was Cotching's (later Franks's) farm; Vyner Road now runs across its orchard. There were three public houses - the Goldsmiths' Arms, the Horse and Groom obliquely across the green triangle from it, and the Bull at the far east end of the village. The smithy stood just south of the Horse and Groom, and like that inn it shut down in 1909. Away to the north was Friars Place, The Friars, a villa called Rosebank and a few cottages. The scene was completed to the north-east with farms at Acton Wells and Six Elms (Old Oak Common).
The villagers of East Acton reached their parish church, St Mary's, by a long walk across the Church Field (hence the later Churchfield Road). So-called "mission services" (i.e. away from the main church building) were conducted in the chapel of the Almshouses, and in the barn of Cotching's farm by Alec Jones, a lay-worker at St. Mary's who afterwards became assistant curate. In 1871 the rector of St Mary's, the Rev. C.M.Harvey, had a proper church of England schoolhouse built in East Acton. It was at once put into use for regular Sunday evening services, and Harvey reports that the congregations were large and attentive. He began to hatch fresh plans for East Acton.
In 1876 he and the Rev.J.N.Ouvry-North, a retired priest living in East Acton and of an old Acton family, petitioned the Goldsmiths' Company to build a church in East Acton. Within weeks, on 14 December 1876, a Company's special committee approved the project. The Goldsmiths agreed to build a church to seat about 800 and a "parsonage house"; to provide a small endowment for the living, supplemented by a voluntary grant "during the pleasure of the Court"; and to ensure that East Acton became a separate parish. The Company's architect, Robert Hesketh, drew up plans for the church and the vicarage, and the building contract was given to Adamson & Son of Ealing. The Clerk's estimate of the total cost had been £8,000, but Adamsons' tender of £10,840 was accepted.
The church is in the Decorated style, of red brick and white Doulting stone dressings, with a chancel, nave of four bays, and north and south aisles. At the south-west corner is a tower and broach spire rising to about 140 feet, housing the one bell. In the late 1990s, the bell, which had hung silent for many years, was repaired and once again sounded across East Acton.
The red brick vicarage, immediately north of the church, was in a Jacobean style, with deep pargetted eaves. It continued as the vicarage until the summer of 1941, when the Rev. Race Godfrey moved to 54 Perryn Road. As the Old Vicarage it served as a day-nursery under the Borough Council, and was demolished in 1973 to make way for the Prideaux Place flats.
The Goldsmiths' Company nominated as first vicar the Rev.Thomas M.Hayter, M.A., of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a stipend of £200 a year, supplemented by a grant "at pleasure" of £300 yearly.
On 11 May 1878 the foundation stone of the church, now set in the east wall of the chancel, was laid by the Company's Prime Warden, Mr F.J.Bramwell. Its text is from Nehemiah 3.32: "And between the going up of the corner and the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants". The Church was represented by the rector and churchwardens of Acton, the Archdeacon of Middlesex and the Bishop of London. Psalms were sung, prayers offered, and the Bishop preached. The gathering of 130 then took lunch in a marquee, hosted by Goldsmiths' Prime Warden.
Then followed an incident which almost certainly surprised and delighted the audience in 1878. St. Mary's Parish Magazine says: "The prime Warden stated that he had hoped to have a phonograph present to propose at least one toast, but that he had failed. He had however been able to secure one of the latest specimens of applied science, a telephone harp, to which he begged their attention. From two telephones fixed to the poles of the marquee, and connected by wires with an instrument in a tent at a distance, there was heard part of the Overture to William Tell. The music, though not very sweet, was very distinct". Although experiments of this kind had taken place as early as 1845 in laboratories, this is believed to have been one of the first uses of a wired public address system.
Just over a year later, on 22 July 1879, the church was consecrated and dedicated in the name of Dunstan, the patron saint of goldsmiths.
The interior appearance of the church in its earliest days was very different from what it gradually became over the next 50 years. There were pews north and south of the chancel with pew-rents payable for a guaranteed regular seat. The pulpit stood on the north side of the arch, the lectern in the middle of the step, and a handsome brass chandelier, presented by the Goldsmiths, hung from the chancel roof. And there were no picture-windows to enliven sermon-time for the children sitting in dwarf pews on very high plinths at the west corners of the aisles.
Information from R N G Rowland, updated by Nigel Middlemiss
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