England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pluckley St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Pluckley lies in eastern central Kent roughly 6 miles northwest of the town of Ashford. Pluckley sits within an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road sits some 3 1/2 miles to the north where the A20 linking Ashford with Maidstone runs. Pluckley is a mid-sized crossroads village, a crossroads to the north is closely followed southwards by a T-junction with most properties built between the two or along The Street which runs eastwards fro that T-junction, a tail of further properties is found to the south in the subsidiary hamlet of Pluckley Thorne whilst a second group sits by Pluckley Station at Chamber's Green. Pluckley was and is a farming parish where the traditional Kentish crops of orcharding and hops still hold a strong percentage of the parish acreage, most of the area between Pluckley and Little Chart, to the northeast, lies under orchards. The poorer soils of the Weald necessitated a mixed farming regime for the west of the parish with much managed woodland still present today. Modern developments have arrived in the parish, the railway line linking Tonbridge with Ashford passes through some 2 miles to the south granting the remote station at Chamber's Green to Pluckley. Pluckley is drained eastwards by a small brook which soon meets the River Great Stour which takes water north to Canterbury and then east to the North Sea arriving through the port of Sandwich. Pluckley is sited at on rising ground from 50 metres above the sea in Pluckley Thorne to 110 metres at the northern crossroads which marks the local high spot. Pluckley parish sits within an area of the county where most parishes are quite extensive, it covered a little over 3,000 acres and would have supported a population of close to 800 parishioners. Domesday Pluckley was held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and was a mid-sized rural manor even then offering 13 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits on the northern side of The Street about one hundred yards from its junction with the main north to south running lane. The church has its origins in the 13th century with the core and tower being first constructed in the Early English Gothic style. The nave has been considerably modified but both chancel and tower show the characteristic lancet styled windows, those in the chancel on the eastern face those in the tower at 2 levels on both northern and southern faces. Whilst initially constructed in the 13th century the nave was expanded in the first half of the 14th, the Decorated era, with the addition of a southern aisle and 3-bay arcade. The present layout of the church was completed in the late 15th century with the addition of the battlemented southern chapel between 1476 & 1482, the 2-storey southern porch and northern vestry were also added in the Perpendicular style as well as many windows being replaced and the western doorway being set into the western tower. For once Pevsner fails to mention a Victorian restoration so if one occurred it was clearly light and sensitive. Whilst there is on-street parking available on The Street it makes more sense to utilise the broad space to the west of the church at the junction. A curving pathway rises from The Street into the churchyard which sits above road-height, the churchyard has many trees within the southern part limiting the views available from the favoured angles, most views are from the north and east.