St Mary's Church, Aston Brook

St Mary’s Church stood in Aston Brook, a working-class district of Birmingham. Built in 1863 to designs by James Murray, it was a brick Gothic church with a tall tower added in 1882. Inside, a two-manual pipe organ by Norman and Beard filled the nave with sound. The church opened a girls’ and infants’ school in 1868, serving the new parish carved from St Peter and St Paul, Aston, St Silas’, Lozells, and St Matthew’s, Duddeston. Its congregation organised cricket matches against local chapels and Wesleyan groups. The church is remembered for the part it played in the birth of Aston Villa Football Club. In March 1874 a scratch team from St Mary’s met Aston Villa on Wilson Road, Birchfield. The match began under rugby rules and finished under soccer rules, played with a round ball. Aston Villa won 1–0 after a rebound, with goalkeeper Scattergood beaten by Hughes. Newspapers later called it Villa’s first recorded match, though some details remain debated. Today the site is grass and mature trees beside Aston Park. A low stone kerb marks the church’s footprint, and a modern plaque recalls the 1874 football game. Visitors can stand where the tower once rose and look across the park to the pitches where Aston Unity once played. The quiet corner keeps the memory of Murray’s church and the mixed-rules match that helped shape a football club.