Hampton Wick's only Anglican church is to be closed forever and its services transferred to a neighbouring parish in the same year it planned to celebrate its 175th anniversary.

Saint John the Baptist in Church Grove, next to Bushy Park, was built in 1831 and was once a thriving parish church.

However, in 1986 it was deemed to be not financially viable.

Its vicar was removed and it became a united parish with St Mark's Teddington, which now has about 8,500 people.

Hampton Wick's small group of about 15 service attendees have now been told that in six months' time their elegant church will shut and its services moved to Teddington.

A committee has banded together to try and stop the scheduled October closure because they feel the demise of the ward's only Anglican church building, rather than one of Teddington's five, is unfair as the decision was made by residents of Teddington.

Jacquie and Iain Cox live in the vicarage designed and built by the well known architect Edward Lapidge, who also built St John's and Kingston Bridge.

Mrs Cox said: "What I think is very important is it is very significant architecture with a prominent connection in the area and it is the only church in our parish.

"It is open to the people for births, deaths and marriages, but the people that live in the parish do not know that the church is closing.

"We were about to celebrate the church's 175th anniversary. There was going to be a big celebration."

Her husband said: "We are going to the people of Hampton Wick to let them know because nobody else has let them know."

The committee members feel the problem stems from the fact that although it is a shared parish, most of the attention is on Teddington.

Committee member and Hampton Wick resident, Iain Burgess, said: "Why do we have to be a joint parish? Why do we not have our own vicar? If he walked down the high street in Hampton Wick people would not know him."

The vicar, Reverend David Lund, responded: "The closure has been on the local Church Authorities' agenda for 25 years. We have tried everything. Ten years ago we called a public meeting and said the future of Saint John's depends on you, the people of Hampton Wick, and they said they wanted to keep it, but ever since then the attendance has simply gone down.

"Everything we have done by St Mark's has made it grow by 40 per cent. Everything we have done in Teddington we have done at St John's, but it does not work at St John's."

Reverend Lund said there are £100,000 worth of urgent repairs at St John's and that after spending £60,000 on the church in the last few years, they cannot afford to put in any more money.

To find out more about the campaign phone Iain Cox on 020 8977 2602.