England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Kingsbridge St Edmund

The Parish

The parish of Kingsbridge lies in the extreme south of Devon at the head of the Kingsbridge Estuary and about 35 miles south of Exeter. Kingsbridge is a market town and port sitting astride the junction of the A381 (Salcombe to Totnes) road with the A379 (Plymouth to Dartmouth) road. Much of Kingsbridge is built up the deeply incised valley which runs northwards from the end of the estuary. As a port Dartmouth would have exported along the coast to the rest of England as well as the near continent, trade would have involved locally produced corn, malt, leather, cider, and slate as well as importing & catching of fish & shellfish. Small manufacturing employed a few people whilst Kingsbridge also acted as local market for the hinterland notably of cattle from the many pasturelands hereabouts. Kingsbridge, as a coastal settlement, is drained conveniently into the estuary by its small stream, the village is sited between sea level and 30 metres up the rising valley, the local area shows a deeply incised landscape with local heights rising to a plateau level of around 160 metres above the sea. Kingsbridge parish was absolutely tiny, covering just the original area of the town, barely 30 acres but crowded into that area were over 1,500 parishioners. There is no specific mention of Kingsbridge within Domesday Book, presumably its details were recorded with the rural parish of Dodbrooke which almost encloses it.

The Church

St Edmund's church, for once, does not sit on Church Street rather it is set behind commercial properties to the west of Fore Street and is accessible only on foot through alleyways running off that street. One is immediately drawn to the impressive spired crossing tower and rightly so for Pevsner points this out as the oldest surviving feature of the building. The tower is dated to the 13th into the start of the 14th century. Much else of the fabric dates from the 19th century rebuilding, albeit a mediaeval southern chancel chapel survives the changes. The church has documentary evidence of initial consecration in 1414 a date consistent with a build lasting 120 or so years. AS stated much else was rebuilt and added by the Victorian restorers resulting in today's church. St Edmund is difficult to photograph from any direction other than the west, to the east it sits flush with the adjacent commercial properties whilst to both north & south they are a little further away but still tightly enclosing the church.