England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stokeinteignhead St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Stokeinteignhead lies on the eastern coast of southern Devon about 3 miles south of the resort & port of Teignmouth. Stokeinteignhead sits in lanes, tucked away in a steeply sided valley, about a mile west of the A379 coast road which connects teignmouth through to Torquay. Stokeinteignhead is a compact small village, squeezed into its tightly constrained valley and thus spreading along the small brook which has formed it in more active glacial times. Despite having within its bounds, not only the short stretch of Devon's English Channel coastline and also a substantial frontage onto the broad Teign Estuary, Stokeinteignhead would have primarily been a pastoral farming community with not only the main village but also Lower & Higher Gabwell, to the south, all involved in extensive dairy cattle rearing. The small brook drains the parish the short distance north to the Teign Estuary and thence east to the English Channel. Stokeinteignhead is sited at 40 metres above the sea but land rises either side of the village reaching over 150 metres southwestwards towards Coffinswell. Stokeinteignhead parish was fairly typically sized for this area, covering around 2,000 acres it would have supported a population of close to 600 parishioners. In Domesday times the parish was held by one Nicholas the Bowman, a relatively small place offering just 7 ploughs together with small meadows & pastures.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits at the heart of the village, accessed from the main street by a short, rising, dead-end lane. The church is largely from the 14th century with a build which encompassed both the earlier Decorated style with the later Perpendicular tradition. The standard layout of nave & chancel with a western tower has been enlarged all around by both aisles and north & south transepts to turn that design into a cruciform shape albeit retaining that western tower rather than converting to a central crossing tower more typical of that form. The chancel was heavily restored, almost rebuilt, in the 1865 restoration whilst further work of 1894 tended to the roofs. Whilst Stoke Road is narrow folk do park along it, a better bet for an extended visit is to ask permission to use the large car park of the Church House Inn which, along with the lane access, also allows entry to the churchyard. There are a few trees gathered close by the church which do somewhat limit the angles available for photography, particularly around the western tower.