England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Margaret at Cliffe St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of St Margaret at Cliffe lies in the extreme southeast of Kent forming a lengthy stretch of the county's North Sea coastline. St Margaret at Cliffe is located about 3 1/2 miles northeast of the port of Dover and stands just under 3 miles southeast of the A258 road which connects Dover with Deal. There are two distinct settlements to St Margaret at Cliffe, the village sitting slightly inland and holding the church is a mid-sized settlement of a single High Street with two westwards running spurs, to the southeast lies the coastal resort, this early 20th century settlement descends the chalk cliffs for which the area is renowned in song in a series of terraces down to a small harbour. This dichotomy has been evident for some time, the small fishing harbour being renowned for the quality of its lobsters whilst the village and its hinterland would have been a farming community with sheep the main livestock on the short turf of the chalk. Today tourism is a dominant force in the parish economy, day trippers to the sea front and hikers and naturalists to the White Cliffs Country Trail, home to specialist plants and in very recent times an attempt to reintroduce the iconic corvid, the Chough. As a coastal settlement most water makes its way sub-surface to the meeting of the North Sea and English Channel. St Margaret at Cliffe is sited between sea level and 100 metres above the sea in its southernmost properties, to the southwest on the edge of Dover 126 metres is reached as a local high point. Covering just under 1,800 acres St Margaret at Cliffe parish was fairly typically sized for its area, that acreage would have supported a population of around 750 parishioners. In Domesday Book St Margaret at Cliffe is recorded as having 52 households enough to place it in the top 20% of settlements by population, it was held in 10 packets by the Canons of Dover with assets totalling 11 ploughs.

The Church

St Margaret of Antioch's church (to give its full title) sits within the village portion of St Margaret at Cliffe on the western side of the High Street and opposite to Cripps Lane. Pevsner rightly opens his account of the church by describing it as "outstanding"  which it correctly is. Enough remains of an earlier church for Pevsner to identify that prior to today's layout there was a simple aisleless church of c1100 as evidenced by the herringbone laid masonry in the chancel side walls. Pevsner speculates that today's church, an almost complete Norman Romanesque building, was constructed c1140 following the re-foundation of St Martin's Priory in Dover to which it belonged. Virtually all of the structure, 4-bay chancel, 4 bays but longer for the nave complete with aisles and the western tower, were all constructed in a single 12th century build. The western doorway in particular is a richly decorated piece of sculpture rather than a simple architectural piece. Changes to the western tower were soon needed, however, as the tower arch shows late 12th century forms in its construction, perhaps to stabilise some early movement. The 14th century saw simply the addition of a northern porch and the extension of the northern aisle to clasp the tower, yet more evidence of stabilisation being required. The Victorian era saw a modest restoration of 1864-6 which inserted side windows into the aisles as well as generally restoring the church. There is no parking permitted on the High Street close to the church, Cripps Lane dies have a few spots and Beach Road a small car park. The church is well screened and above road height when seen from High Street, it takes 13 steps to climb into the churchyard, the churchyard is busy with trees and there needs to be some careful weighing up of options to find the better aspects, a challenge for the photographer.