England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ebony St Mary the Virgin

The Parish

The parish of Ebony lies in the extreme south of Kent not too far from the border with neighbouring Sussex. Ebony no longer exists as a place marked on current Ordnance Survey maps but was located roughly 4 miles south of the small market town of Tenterden and formed a section of the northern (former) Isle of Oxney, The name has been expunged from current maps and even the church has been demolished and rebuilt on the former mainland at Reading Street, thus the parish consists of a scatter of farms and cottages together with extensive grazing marshes formed upon the drained former channel that made Oxney and island. The former village site (at least that of the church) was at a low subsidiary island labelled Chapel Bank on current maps. Reading Street, the new site for the church, sits on the B2080 which connects Tenterden with New Romney. Given the extensive grazing marshes it is no surprise that the local economy was dominated by pastoral farming there being little area set to arable. The drainage of the parish is totally man-modified with numerous "sewers", ads the local drainage channels are know, taking water to the River Rother and thence to the English Channel through the port of Rye. Chapel Bank is sited at just 20 metres above the sea whilst the Isle of Oxney rises to 64 metres but much of the parish land would have been barely 3 metres above the sea. Ebony parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering 2,400 acres it would have supported a population of just over 150 parishioners. Ebony is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

As mentioned what remains of St Mary's church now sits alongside the B2080 at Reading Street. The church has had a chequered history as the one that was demolished in 1858 and rebuilt at Reading Street also replaced a medieval building destroyed by lightning in Elizabethan times. The building that was demolished was a simple affair of combined nave and chancel and today's church rebuilt at Reading Street using most of the original walling and dressings largely reflects a similar layout. The rebuild did enhance that basic structure with a small bell-turret.  Parking is slightly tricky as the B road is quite straight and traffic fast moving but a broad mown verge must suffice. A low rag-stone wall surrounds the rather small churchyard which has dense trees occupying the southeastern quadrant removing that favoured aspect.