England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Plymstock St Mary & All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Plymstock lies in the extreme southwest of Devon, indeed it forms part of Devon's English Channel coastline. Once a separate village Plymstock is nowadays contiguous with the port of Plymouth albeit separated by the estuary of the River Plym. Plymstock sits on the eastern banks of that estuary and incorporates the suburbs of Oreston, Pomphlett, Turnchapel & Hooe. Plymstock sits on and south of the A379 road which connects Plymouth with the wider South Hams area of Devon including Kingsbridge, Scanning of a modern map shows little sign of the village that would have been "old" Plymstock as modern development has swamped the former settlement. The proximity of the vast naval port of Plymouth has always provided employment for Plymstock, Turnchapel was a site for shipbuilding and ships as large as 74 gun vessels were built, wet docks also provided employment. A large quarry covers part of the parish, this was used to build the mighty breakwater which shelters the port. Beyond that service to the port Plymstock would have had some fishing of its own as well as agriculture, here a mixture of pastoral and arable farming. AS a coastal settlement much of the parish drains quickly to the nearby Plym Estuary. Plymstock is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in undulating countryside, local heights (dominated by naval forts) reach 125 metres on nearby Staddon Heights. Plymstock parish was fairly typically sized for this area of Devon, it covered around 3,200 acres and would have supported a population of close to 3,000 parishioners. In Domesday times, however, Plymstock was a very small place indeed, held by Tavistock Abbey it could offer a meagre 4 ploughs and small meadows & pastures.

The Church

St Mary & All Saints' church sits in the heart of the oldest parts of Plymstock just over a half miles south of the A379 and on the eastern side of Church Road opposite The Plymstock Inn. St Mary & All Saints has its origins largely in the 14th century when the previous small chapel was either rebuilt or substantially enlarged. The northern aisle was added roughly a century later to bring together the present building. These dates are consistent with the predominantly Perpendicular style of the building. Like most churches there was a Victorian "restoration", in this case in 1866 at which time the southern aisle was largely rebuilt and the roofing renewed amongst other work. The church sits on an elevated site with a head-height local stone wall separating it from street level. Entrances from both northern and southern ends have steps climbing up to churchyard level. Three rather large trees dominate the churchyard and do somewhat limit the available photographic angles.