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

The Parish

The parish of South Shoebury forms the southeastern-most tip of Essex forming an extensive part of the county's coastline, here at the very mouth of the River Thames as it meets the North Sea. South Shoebury no longer merits a name on modern Ordnance Survey Maps having been subsumed within the wider entity of Shoeburyness which once referred only to the headland which bore a signal station. South Shoebury sits roughly 2 miles east of the seaside resort of Southend on Sea and at the eastern end of the A13 which connects the area through to London. At the time of this transcript South Shoebury was a relatively small and insignificant coastal settlement, growing cereals and exploiting the estuary for both fish and shellfish being the main occupations. All of this changed with the coming of modern developments, a railway line connecting through Southend to the capital undoubtedly helped development but the principal growth was as a result of the establishment of the firing ranges of the British School of Gunnery. The military began to utilise South Shoebury as early as 1847 but it was in 1859 that it became a permanent fixture, permanent that is until closure in 1998, today it has been redeveloped as a housing area. South Shoebury's alternate side is as a seaside day-tripper site albeit the frontage to the Thames is not some pristine sandy beach. Being a coastal settlement South Shoebury has virtually no lengthy drainage. South Shoebury is sited at barely 5 metres above the sea i  rather flat terrain where local high spots only reach above 20 metres on the northern fringes of Southend. Whilst the parish claimed an extensive area of open water the land-based acreage was fairly small, just over 1,100 acres in which, at the time of this transcript, a population of barely 150 would have been supported. In Domesday times both South & North Shoebury were recorded as one, with Bishop Odo of Bayeux and Swein of Essec (a rare Saxon survivor) holding shares it is tempting to place each with a single landholder, collectively their assets totalled 16 ploughs with the usual meadows, woodland and pasture.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits, appropriately enough, on Church Road just south of the terminus of the A13. The church certainly has early origins with most of the basic fabric in the 12th century Norman Romanesque style. Built largely from the Essex rag-stone with flint rubble admixed, the nave and chancel are certainly from this period as is the southern doorway, a single Norman-style window still graces the north wall of the chancel despite all of the later changes. These changes represent most of the style periods that intervene, there are 13th century lancets, things skip the Decorated era but the Perpendicular of the 14th century is shown well by the western tower and the 15th century timber porch. The church received the battlements in the 18th century, an unusual period for work, whilst the usual Victorian restoration, in this case of a lengthy phase from 1894 to 1902 added the southern vestry as well as making a general restoration. Church Road is amply wide enough for street parking outside the rag-stone rubble churchyard walls, the gate has disappeared leaving the posts marking entry into a capacious and empty churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.