England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stisted All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Stisted lies in the northeastern portion of central Essex roughly 3 miles east of the market town of Braintree. Stisted sits just over a mile north of the busy A120 road which links Braintree via Coggeshall to Colchester. Stisted is a mid-sized and compact village sitting on the northern banks of the River Blackwater, most properties line the main lane running from north to south and connecting onward to the A120, whilst to its west lies the church and the early 19th century mansion of Stisted Hall, its former parkland nowadays home to Braintree's golf club. Like most Essex parishes Stisted was primarily an arable farming parish, early gazetteers estimate that as much as 75% of the parish acreage was set to arable whilst the close proximity of the riverside pastures of the Blackwater gave a little diversity. Stisted is drained east and then south by the River Blackwater which soon reaches its estuary through the port of Maldon and thence to the North Sea. Stisted is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in gentle terrain where local high points rarely rise more than 15 metres higher. At a little over 2,900 acres Stisted parish was almost twice the size of a normal rural arable parish in southern England, within that acreage it would have supported a population of close to 900 parishioners. Even by Domesday times Stisted was a substantial settlement, a population of sufficient size as to put it amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, its assets, held by Canterbury Abbey, were more modest consisting of 9 ploughs, the usual meadows & woodland although there was a mill.

The Church

Water Lane is the main north to south route, to its west sits The Street and to the south of that sits All Saints' church on the edge of the former parkland of the Stisted Hall estate. As Pevsner rightly states the position of the tower at the eastern end of the southern aisle gives the church a curious profile, it was rebuilt there in 1844 as part of major restorations. The church's origin go back to the late 12th century, the oldest surviving portion of the church being the 5-bay northern arcade which Pevsner tentatively dates c1180-1190 and therefore late Norman Romanesque. Slightly later comes the chancel showing the characteristic lancet styled windows of the 13th century Early English Gothic period. The final piece of medieval work is from the early 14th century and in the Decorated style of that half century, it is marked as such by the 14th century tracery of the windows on the walls of both northern & southern aisles. As already mentioned there was much work in 1844, sponsored and funded by the local Savill-Onley family. Besides rebuilding the tower, the work also re-roofed and restored the chancel and rebuilt the western wall of the nave, a final flourish was the creation of today's northern & southern porches. The church can be seen distantly from Water Lane but is easily accessed from The Street by a southward running track, a small parking area sits just into that track for visitors. At the southern end a lychgate marks the entry into an open and uncluttered churchyard which is spacious and has no obstacles for the photographer.