England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ashford St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Ashford lies in southeastern Kent roughly midway between Maidstone and Folkestone, it is 20 miles southeast of the former and 15 northwest of the latter. Ashford sits on the route of the A20 between London and the cross-Channel ports of Folkestone & Dover. Ashford has gone through several iterations in a long history, initially subservient to Great Chart, the the  market town, after Great Chart was destroyed by Danish invaders the centre for local market moved to Ashford. For most of the medieval period and early modern times Ashford was the regional market town, the market being granted in 1348, a centre for trade and specialist skilled artisans with modest manufacturing, notably in linen. The wider more rural portions of the parish would have been the usual Kentish hotch-potch of arable, pastures & specialist crops such as fruit & hops. With the coming of railways in the mid-19th century Ashford became a major junction for a spider's webs of railways fanning out across both the county and neighbouring Sussex. Finally Ashford has emerged as a major international transport hub with the construction of the HS1, high speed rail link between London & Paris, international rail station allowing passengers to connect with that service without passing through crowded central London. A major consequence has been increased growth in both area covered, engulfing the villages of Kennington & Willesborough, to now cover a roughly circular urban area of 4 miles in diameter, and also a major increase in both service & light industries together with a whole new central shopping centre. Ashford is nowadays a major southeastern urban centre estimated as being between 125,000 and 150,000, a multi-fold increase over the population at the time of this transcript. As already described their are railway line abundant, from London, Canterbury, Dover & Folkestone, Tonbridge & Hastings, in addition the modern M20 motorway, which once formed the urban area's northern edge, now sits within the town en route from London to the ports for Channel crossing. Ashford is drained northeastwards by the East Stour River & the Great Stour which together head for Canterbury and the North Sea arriving north of Sandwich. Ashford is sited at around 50 metres for almost its entire urban area, only northwards to nearby Challock does any substantial height accumulate with that village standing at close to 150 metres, the general terrain is rather gentle. Ashford was already a large parish before its expansion, covering around 2,800 acres its population at the time of this transcript was only around 3,100 parishioners. In Domesday times Ashford was a manor of just 21 households, held by Hugh de Montfort its assets of 5 ploughs were supplemented by 2 mills but it was a small place, within the overall parish two other manors, South Ashford offering 2 further ploughs and Ripton a further 1 all indicates a typical rural farming area with small manors at that date.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the heart of "old" Ashford to the north of the new infrastructure of the High Speed Railway and the eye-catching shopping centre that now forms the centre. The churchyard in enclosed within surrounding urban areas to the south of the High Street and north of Tufton Street. Originally a collegiate church the building is essentially a product of the 14th century, there being no fabric earlier than the western wall of the southern transept which shows a Decorated styled window now blocked, it does, however, indicate that the church has always been a cruciform layout with a central crossing tower and transepts, a layout more traditionally associated with an early church. The following hundred years saw the eastern end of the church, the chancel of 3-bays, aisles & transepts completed. The central crossing tower, complete at 120 metres in height, and nave were created between 1475 & 1483 in an intensive building campaign that saw the church essentially complete by the end of the 14th century. Several phases of both Georgian & Victorian restoration are recorded in Pevsner, the aisles being widened in 1827 and the nave lengthened by an additional bay in 1860 being the main changes wrought whilst a standard refresh of the nave's windows in 1897 merely preserved what was already present. This is definitely a church to visit on foot after finding a town car park. The churchyard, a compact oblong is a major impediment to successfully acquiring images of the church, it has barely room around the church and what space there is has many trees, neighbouring building both commercial and domestic crowd the churchyard's space too, a photographer has to try many approaches before being satisfied.