England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Halstead St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Halstead lies in western Kent quite close to the border with neighbouring Surrey. Halstead is located about 5 miles northwest of the town of Sevenoaks and sits high on Kent's North Downs. Halstead is a small and fairly compact village built around a crossroads a mile west of the A224 road which connects Sevenoaks with Orpington. A small parish with most employed in farming, a large proportion of the area was under managed coppiced woodland to augment the usual arable production. Modern developments have come to Halstead, the London to Sevenoaks rail line cuts through the parish, albeit in a tunnel underneath the high ground of the Downs, whilst the modern M25 motorway runs a little to the east of the A224. As Halstead sits on porous chalk there is little surface drainage with most water heading underground eastwards to the River Darent, the Darent makes its way northwards to reach the outer Thames Estuary to the north of Dartford. Halstead is sited at around 160 metres above the sea but not at the highest crest of the Downs which rise to close to 240 metres before plunging into The Weald. Halstead parish was small, one of the smaller in this area, it covered just over 900 acres and would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. Halstead is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits almost 3/4 of a mile to the northwest of Halstead's main centre of population. The lane which leads towards Pratt's Bottom becomes Church Road and the church sits on its eastern side. Sadly the original medieval church was demolished in 1881 so this building was not where these events occurred, the present church was erected in phases largely during the 19th century. The chancel, originally just a burial chapel was completed in 1855, the nave was added in 1881, the northern aisle and vestry in 1897 and an outer northern aisle as recently as 1992. As church Road is rather narrow it is fortunate that there is a large car park to the south of the site, a lychgate leads into the churchyard directly from this. The church is cheek by jowl with the hedging bordering Church Road so views of the bellcote are limited but otherwise all is available to the photographer.