England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Capel le Ferne St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Capel le Ferne lies in the extreme southeast of Kent forming a stretch of the county's English Channel coastline. Capel le Ferne is located roughly 3 miles northeast of the town & port of Folkestone and stands on the B201 road which links Folkestone with Dover. Capel le Ferne, as we see it today, is a totally modern community, old maps show a parish with no real village to speak of, there was a small congregation of properties in the area now known as Swinge Hill and a further grouping at the parish church but most of the parish consisted of scattered farms and cottages, the economy would have been dependent upon a mixture of both arable and pastoral farming. The modern Capel le Ferne came about in the early 20th century sparked in 1903 by the auctioning of plots for villas, bungalow and small shops on the cliff top of the famous White Cliffs, the result is a triangular shaped cliff-top village with each external edge roughly a quarter mile in extent. Modern developments have come aplenty to the area, the railway line connecting Dover with Folkestone runs along the base of the cliffs whilst the modern A20 which bypasses the village, cutting it off from its church, is now a modern dual-carriageway highway, unseen below the village the Channel Tunnel runs before heading out to sea. Capel le Ferne sits on porous chalk with no surface drainage water making its way sub-surface to the adjacent English Channel. Capel le Ferne parish covers land from sea level to 173 metres at a spot height just northwest of the modern village. Capel le Ferne parish was typically sized for a southern rural farming parish, covering just over 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. Capel le Ferne is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church stands amongst farms over a mile northeast from the modern village and over a half mile northeast of Swinge Hill, it sits north of the A20 dual-carriageway and is accessed by a narrow farm track. The church has been deconsecrated and is managed by the Churches Conservation Trust. Like many rural small churches St Mary has retained masonry from the earliest times, both nave and chancel have their origins in the 12th century, the Norman Romanesque period, the nave has a typical window of that period on the northern face whilst the chancel has characteristic large quoin stones. The western tower is later. 13th century Early English Gothic, including its tower arch to the nave. The main attraction of the church lies inside where it has an unusual stone chancel screen. Like most churches there were Victorian restorations, the first of 1866 tackled the chancel whilst the second of 1874 refreshed the nave. The farm-track, Capel Church Road, terminates at typically muddy farmyards, the is ample space to park without hampering farm operations, from here a short walk takes you to the churchyard along public footpaths, the church sits within an extensive oblong churchyard which has no major obstacles for the photographer.