England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Newenden St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Newenden lies in the extreme south of Kent forming a lengthy stretch of the border with neighbouring Sussex. Newenden is located roughly 8 miles northwest of the Sussex town of Rye and sits on the A28 road which links Ashford with the Sussex coastal resort of Hastings. Newenden sits on the northern banks of the River Rother, a situation which shapes its design with most properties either lining the A28 or sitting either side of a lane paralleling the river to the east, the "L" shape so formed stretching for almost a mile from end to end. Early gazetteers report that Newenden was once a sea port and an extensive city as a consequence, little trace of that eminence remains and today the village is some considerable distance deom the sea albeit the Rother was navigable in relatively recent times. Newenden would have been a farming village, the extensive grazing marshes that flank the Rother and its side channels providing rich grazing for mainly cattle whilst arable farming and orcharding, the products typical to Kent, would have sat upon drier and higher ground. Modern developments have come to the parish, the railway line connecting Tenterden with Bodiam is today, however, merely a heritage line having been closed from the main network. Newenden is drained eastwards and then south by the Rother which reaches the nearby English Channel through Rye. Newenden is sited at between 5 and 25 metres above the sea, the upper portions sitting on a thin peninsula of land that rises westwards to a local high point of 82 metres to the west of nearby Sandhurst. By the standards of its county, Newenden parish was toward the smaller end of the scale, covering just over 1,000 acres it would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. In Domesday times the port, perhaps fabled, did not exist, a mere 5 ploughs and some woodland were the only assets provided for its landholder, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Church

If the village is remnant of a once larger settlement so is St Peter a remnant of a once larger church.  The church stands on the eastern side of the A28 at the junction with Lossenham Lane which runs eastwards, opposite and slightly further north of the White Hart's white clapper-boarded inn. Where once the church held both a chancel and a tower both were demolished in 1700 leaving today's church remaining from merely the nave and northern aisle of the former version. What remains is of the 14th century and a mixture of Decorated & Perpendicular styles. To this remnant of the medieval the Victorian restorers in 1859 added the skinny southwestern tower complete with spire and topped by a weather vane. Given the position of the church above the road had the western tower persisted it would have almost overhung the edges of the churchyard. South of the church there is a shallow lay-by for parking allowing an extended visit. A short flight of steps rises into the churchyard which is elevated above road height and almost free of obstacles for the photographer.