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

The Parish

The parish of Sellindge, the "D" is sometimes dropped, lies in southern Kent roughly 7 miles southeast of the industrial town of Ashford. Sellindge sits on the A20 road which connects Ashford with Folkestone. There are two principal settlements to Sellindge, the original village with the parish church is now named Stone Hill and consists of a run of properties along a lane running northwards from the A20, a mile further east is the modern village which claims the village's name, this too has a small frontage to the A20 with most properties here on a lane running to the northeast thereof. At the time of this transcript Sellindge parish had a rather mixed economy, roughly equal parts arable, pastoral and with the remainder equally split between woodland and marsh. Today the area has changed markedly as a consequence of the infrastructure associated initially with the railway line connecting London with Folkestone, in recent times the same route has been adopted to carry the high speed line from London to Paris via the Channel Tunnel. Adding to the developments the same line is also followed by the modern M20 Motorway performing the same service for vehicular traffic. All runs within a quarter of a mile of both Stone Hill and Sellindge. The parish drainage is sketchy at first before emerging as the East Stour River and trending westwards until at Ashford the meeting with the Great Stour occurs and water heads north to Canterbury then east to reach the North Sea through Sandwich. Stone Hill stands at around 60 metres above the sea with modern Sellindge 10 metres higher, the steep escarpment of the North Downs lies only a few miles north and reaches 182 metres due north of Sellindge. Sellindge parish was typically sized for its area covering just under 2,100 and supporting a population of close to 450 parishioners. In Domesday times Sellindge was a holding of Hugh de Montfort and could muster 7 ploughs, meadows and woodland and also held a mill, a mid-range rural holding.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the southern side of the A20 opposite where the lane of Stone Hill emerges onto that main road. St Mary has fabric dating back to the very earliest stone built churches with Pevsner puzzling as to whether to assign the nave to pre-Conquest times, both the southwestern and southeaster quoins are built without dressed stones and possibly Saxon in origin. Of nearly similar vintage is the curious western tower capped by a pyramidal spire, this is slightly later and probably from the 12th century in the Norman Romanesque style. Further Norman work has been revealed by work undergone in the chancel which revealed an arch of that date. Whilst the chancel may have been initially constructed in the 12th century as evidenced by that arch it was extended in the 13th century with early English Gothic features utilised. The northern chapel extends the build period into the early 14th century as it readily shows the Decorated style of that half-century. As in most churches renewals were ongoing right through the medieval period and a late-Perpendicular arch is evidence for the same. The church escaped significant Victorian restoration except for minor works around 1876. Whilst the A20 no longer carries the weight of traffic it once did the presence of a substantial lay-by outside the churchyard is very welcome for parking. The churchyard is slightly raised above road level with a flight of 6 steps required to gain entry, regrettably the church is impacted from the south by trees removing the favoured aspects and several more dot the churchyard leaving few choices for views for the photographer.