England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Charlton by Dover St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Charlton by Dover, the suffix required to distinguish this parish from Kent's other Charlton  at the opposite end of the county by Woolwich, lies in the extreme southeast of Kent about 1 mile north of the market town & port of Dover. Charlton  sits immediately northeast of the A256 road which serves Dover Town rather than the A2 headed for the port. In reality Charlton  is merely an inland suburb of its larger neighbour, even early maps show the town of Dover extending inland for several miles engulfing Charlton  within its embrace. In medieval times this was rural parish but not for some considerable time. Charlton's economy was, therefore, interlocked with that of Dover as port and market centre. Charlton  is drained southeastwards by a small stream which often disappears sub-surface such is the modern development, emerging at the port to enter the English Channel. Charlton  is sited at around 10 metres above the sea by its church, land rises in rolling chalk downs away from the valley to local heights of 130 metres on nearby Edinburgh Hill with its military paraphernalia. Charlton  parish was tiny, barely covering 381 acres and making it one of the smallest rural parishes in the land, its position as a suburb made it a population, however, of over 2,500 parishioners; the paucity of marriages listed here indicates a preference for marriage in one of Dover's other churches. In Domesday times Charlton was a tiny place, a mere pair of ploughs and a mill the only assets benefitting the Canons of Dover the landholder.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits just east of the A256 road on the northern side of St Alphege Road. Whilst the church is a modern building it rightly, as Pevsner says, is "the grandest church in Dover". The church was completed in 1893 so was not the venue for these marriages, it replaced a small medieval version. Today's church is lofty and cruciform and built in a faux-Early English Gothic style from the 13th century. Both nave and chancel sit together beneath a boarded waggon roof and lit by a clerestory of 13th century styled lancets. St Alphege Road is a typical suburban street with on-street parking allowed, the views of the church from this are, however, much better once the western sides of the churchyard are accessed with a fine panorama presented on gently rising ground.