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

The Parish

The town of Sandwich, divided into 3 parishes St Clement, St Mary & St Peter, is located roughly 13 miles east of the city of Canterbury and a similar distance north of Dover  and sits on Kent's eastern coastline. Sandwich once sat on the route of the A256 road, nowadays forming a bypass west of the town, which links Dover with Ramsgate & Margate. Sandwich is an ancient settlement, a former major port and a market town for this stretch of eastern Kent. Sandwich owes its origins to its port which made it a major base for Roman occupation, the port led to immense growth such that by the 11th century Sandwich was one of the largest towns in the land. Created as one of the Cinque Ports, a guild for trade with the continent, Sandwich was granted its market by King Henry III and by the late medieval period remained one of the land's largest towns. Sandwich declined from the 14th century onwards due to silting of its harbour, that decline is reflected in its buildings with new building rare after c1500. A brief return to prosperity followed the settlement of refugee Protestant weavers following their eviction from Flanders but once more the town settled into dignified decay. Modern day attempts to diversify the economy, the former pharmaceutical works on the town's edge, have failed to spark a revival and today's Sandwich remains merely a mid-sized market town but with much tourism to view its retained medieval buildings. Modern developments have come to the town, a railway line from the London to Ramsgate line branches south through Sandwich to Dover. The vast single banks to the east of the town, once protection for the harbour but also its nemesis, now hold major golf courses and were once home to the hovercraft service across the channel from Pegwell Bay. Sandwich is drained to the nearby North Sea by the convoluted course of the River Stour which forms a tight meander on the northern edges of the town to reverse its southward course and head back north and east to the sea. Sandwich is sited entirely below the 10 metre contour with some portions barely above sea level, land rises only gently westwards reaching almost 50 metres southwest of nearby Eastry. Of Sandwich's 3 parishes St Mary is the most westerly and forms a thion strip running from north to south, it remains, however, a very small acreage, St Mary's parish would have supported a population of around 950 parishioners. Whilst Sandwich is mentioned in Domesday Book as a holding of the Archbishop of Canterbury its assets are not listed despite it being reckoned to be one of the largest 20 towns in the land.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the town's Strand Street directly opposite the Kings Arms Inn and almost of the banks of the River Stour. The church is no longer regularly used for worship and is managed by the Churches Conservation Trust. Pevsner starts his account by pointing out that the church simply looks "weird", this was as the result of a disaster in 1668 when the former central crossing tower fell bringing down the remainder of the interior and leaving just the walls. Despite this depredation he notices extensive areas of Caen stone and diagnoses a very early church of probably the 12th century, the only significant proof lies with a small carved tympanum which has been reset later in time into the western gable and the western responds of the aisled nave. The church was expanded in both the 13th century, the southern aisle, and in the 14th century, the northern equivalent whilst the southern porch was also added. Following the disaster the interior has become almost barn-like work between that point and Victorian times being confined to the addition of the weatherboarded bell turret in 1718. Victorian restorations of 1869 & 1874 concerned themselves mainly with windows, restoring tracery and adding lancets to both northern & southern faces. Like most town churches St Mary is one to visit on foot after first finding a town car park, the usual town difficulties are also found with adjacent buildings removing most of the southern aspects, the better views are probably from the street or the quayside.