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

The Parish

The parish of Postling lies in southeastern Kent roughly 5 miles northwest of the port & resort of Folkestone. Postling sits just over a mile north of the A20 road which links Folkestone with Ashford. Postling is a small crossroads village built around a T-junction of lanes and sitting within a semi-enclosed valley set into chalk downland. The parish had a nixed farming regime, close to the village there would hve been arable whilst to its east on the chalk more pastoral areas with sheep. The chalk ridge is, today, followed by the North Downs Way National Trail which passes within a half mile of the village. With the sea only a few miles to the south it is somewhat surprising that drainage heads west to help form the East Stour River which merges into the Great Stour at Ashford and heads north to Canterbury eventually headed northeast to reach the North Sea through the port of Sandwich. Postling is sited at around 100 metres above the sea but the chalk above stands at 181 metres on hilltops to both north and east of the village dominating those views. Postling was sized typically for a rural farming parish in southern England, covering just over 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Postling was held by Hugh de Montfort and was a more substantial settlement than today offering 10 ploughs, meadows & woodland and 2 mills.

The Church

St Mary & St Radegund's church stands west of The Street just south of the main t-junction of the village. Like many small rural church it has masonry dating back to the earliest times, preserved despite thorough Victorian intervention. Both nave and chancel are early bu the nave shows herringbone masonry which Pevsner assigns to the 11th century Saxo-Norman period and a 12th century Norman Romanesque north window. Internally too there are traces of 12th century wall-paintings, sadly incomplete but certainly amongst the earliest such works. The 13th century Early English Gothic period saw the chancel extended eastwards and the western tower constructed, Pevsner dates the work on the chancel to the very end of that century describing the new east window as Geometrical. Matters rested until the Victorian times when two phases of work were completed, in 1852 the belfry stage and shingled spire were added to the tower whilst in 1897 a substantial restoration was completed. The Street is quiet with little traffic allowing careful parking outside the churchyard, this is bordered by a rustic picket fence with similar gates for entry. The church stands well-back from the road accessed across an open and uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.