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

The Parish

The parish of Hinxhill lies in the eastern portion of central Kent roughly 2 1/2 miles east of the town of Ashford. Hinxhill sits just over a mile north of the A20 road which links Ashford with Folkestone. Hinxhill is a tiny place, an estate parish where all land was held by a single landowner and inbound migration discouraged, consequently there is no actual village merely a small cluster of farms and cottages around the church and less densely across the wider parish. Hinxhill sits in the eastern Weald where poorer soils made arable farming difficult, early gazetteers estimate the farming was roughly 2:1 in favour of pastoral methods, today much of the land sits beneath woodland with green patches dotting current Ordnance Survey maps. Hinxhill is drained westwards by small brooks which meet firstly the East Stour River and soon after the Great Stour, after passing through Ashford the Great Stour heads northeast to Canterbury and reaches the North Sea through Sandwich Bay. Hinxhill is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, a few spots break the 70 metre contour but generally the terrain is fairly mild. Hinxhill was a small parish of just 671 acres which would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Hinxhill is not mentioned in Domesday Book in common with much of the Weald.

The Church

St Mary's church sits at the northern end of the short run of properties on the western side of Goodcheap Lane and accompanied by a farming complex. Like many small churches in tiny villages St Mary has fabric back to the earliest times, here the tower arch dates from the 12th century Norman Romanesque period whilst both the sedilia & piscina are genuine 13th century. Lancet windows in the chancel are apparently from the Victorian restoration rather than genuine Early English Gothic originals. Despite the changes wrought by time and restorers it is apparent that the main body was probably erected in that 13th century. The 14th century saw the northern aisle and chapel added to the basic structure. The western tower is medieval in origin too but was largely rebuilt in 1797 obscuring its true dating. The 17th century, a date on the gable of 1698 confirms this, saw the addition of the southern porch which was later converted to the vestry. The church received a thorough restoration in 1880-1 which created the timber arches into the northern chapel as well as restoring much of the fabric. The entrance, a neat lychgate, shares a driveway with the neighbouring farm creating a broad area for safe parking, the churchyard has few obstacles allowing unfettered views from the favoured aspects for the photographer.