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

The Parish

The parish of Allhallows (also known as Hoo Allhallows) is located in north Kent, indeed it forms part of the Kent coast with the estuary of the River Thames. Allhallows is located on the Hoo Peninsula to the north of the A228 road which runs down the spine of that peninsula linking the town of Rochester to the Isle of Grain. There are two main parts to Allhallows, the original farming village which is sited on the ridge of the peninsula at a "T" junction of lanes and a modern coastal development of Allhallows-on-Sea which is a sprawl of holiday parks and chalets along the banks of the River Thames. This was at one time a rather remote area of coastal marshes and arable farming but nowadays there is growth from developments including ports and refineries. Much of this has passed Allhallows by and the original village is still a quiet and rural spot. Allhallows is built at about 20 metres above sea level on a ridge of high ground which forms the spine of the peninsula and runs from west to east, land falls away to grazing marshes to all points except the western approaches. With its, sometimes inundated, marshland mixed with the good soils of the ridge this was a rather large parish at around 2,500 acres which supported just over 250 parishioners. There is no specific mention of Allhallows in Domesday Book, it being subsumed within the wider entry of Stoke to the south.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the "T" junction which forms the heart of the original village on a corner site to the east of the junction. This is a very old church with much that is Norman and even hints of Saxon origins. Pevsner states that the western end of the nave is the earliest and that this is pre-Conquest, much else is 12th century added to over the centuries. There was much added in the 14th century and, of course, the Victorians did their bit too - a rather drastic reconstruction of the chancel dates from the 1880s. The church sits on its corner plot behind a low brick wall, the main entry being from Stoke Road by way of a small wooden gateway. There are a few mature evergreens but these do not impinge on views of the church making for a relatively straightforward photography exercise.