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

The Parish

The parish of Stockbury lies in northern Kent roughly 5 miles southwest of the market town of Sittingbourne. Stockbury is located about a half mile west of the A249 road which connects Sittingbourne with Maidstone. Stockbury is a small village built around a "T" junction of lanes in a hilltop position, to the east sits the church a quarter mile away together with the remains of a 12th century motte-and-bailey castle site. A few properties elsewhere either lie alongside the A249 or are scattered across the wider parish. A glance at today's Ordnance Survey map of the area reveals a continuation of two land-uses prominent in the parish, belts of woodland would have been managed for coppiced products such as hurdles and poles whilst substantial orchards for Kentish fruit and hops are still present, most other farming would have been arable. Modern developments have come to the parish, the modern M2 motorway carves its way across the north of the parish whilst the A249 is today a fast dual-carriageway. The Medway Estuary lies only a few miles to the north and most water makes its way there by small field drains and such channels rather than in formal streams. Stockbury is sited at around 110 metres above the sea, it sits on the rising dip-slope of chalk, hence the lack of surface drainage, which steadily rises southwards to the south-facing escarpment where it peaks at 198 metres with the crest followed by the North Downs Way National Trail. Stockbury parish was fairly extensive covering just over 2,900 acres and supporting close to 600 parishioners. Domesday Stockbury was held by the ubiquitous Bishop Odo of Bayeux and offered just 3 ploughs and the woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Mary's church sits together with the motte-and-bailey  site about a quarter mile east of the main village on the southern side of Church Lane, the church is believed to have sat within the castle's bailey. Whilst the church has its origins in the 13th century a disastrous fire of 1836 together with extensive Victorian restoration have left the medieval content either difficult to identify or suspect as to its origins. Unusually the church is cruciform yet has a western tower rather than a central crossing version. Pevsner establishes that the chancel, in part, together with the northern transept may well be genuinely of c1200 with Early English Gothic styling of that period, the southern transept is believed to be later as is the southern arcade. The western tower is genuine Perpendicular in style but from the later 15th century, it comes complete with a battlemented stair turret. A great part of the church in particular the internal fixtures and fittings were destroyed in the fire and renovated following. This destruction and rebuilding was followed by a most severe restoration of 1852 which, according to Pevsner, "compromised everything". The entrance to the churchyard is from the western edge where a triangular parking area allows a car or two to safely get off-road. Sadly for the photographer the favoured aspects are all compromised by trees making for a limited choice of angles to record this sad building.