England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sturry St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Sturry lies in northeastern Kent roughly 2 1/2 miles northeast of the city of Canterbury. Sturry sits on the A28 road which links Canterbury with Margate. Sturry is a village which has grown considerably in modern times, early maps show the entire village clustered south of the railway line and following thr route of the A28 as it performs a right-angled route through. Today Sturry has expanded to the northeast of the railway line with modern developments to the east of the A291 (Herne road). Sturry has an early history as an important estate for the nearby St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury (see below for the Domesday impact) offering a house of retreat to its Abbot. The wider parish is largely farmed with arable as the dominant method, the course of the Stour provided some water-meadows and parts supported typical Kentish hops fields and orchards. In addition the valley of the Stour provided gravel beds which were exploited for road mending, it was also navigable to the village by barges so functioned as a small inland port. Modern developments arrived in the form of the Canterbury to Ramsgate railway which carves through the village granting Sturry a station. Sturry is drained northeastwards by the Great Stour which makes its way to the coast at Sandwich and thus to the North Sea. Sturry is sited at around 10 metres above the sea with its newer northern suburbs rising above 40 metres, to the northwest in the ancient West Blean Wood occasional spots almost reach 70 metres as local high points. Sturry parish was a large parish covering almost 3,100 acres and supporting a population approaching 1,000 parishioners. Domesday Sturry was also a substantial settlement with sufficient population to be counted amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded. Held by St Augustine's Abbey it was also highly wealthy with 14 ploughs, meadows & woodland but also no fewer than 10 mills and 7 fisheries bringing in extensive revenues for the Abbot and his monks.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits on the southwestern edge of the village within a neat park-like area containing the church, Sturry Court and the village's school all north of the A28 and rather tranquil, it is approached by the dead-end Church Lane from the village's main street. This is an early church with its aisleless nave, chancel and western tower all showing 12th century Norman Romanesque styling, the chancel, in particular, has an impressive 12th century window on the western end. The tower, however, met with an early disaster as within a century it had collapsed and was rebuilt in a more restrained manner. Work in the 13th century, and Early English Gothic in style, added 4-bay nave aisles to increase capacity, at the same time many early windows were remade. Both the Decorated and Perpendicular periods saw little other than windows remade other than the addition of the 14th century northern vestry in a pudding-stone. As is usual there was a Victorian restoration, here in 1869, but this was light and relatively sensitive preserving most of the medieval stonework. Church Lane has on-street parking as far as The Hamels but thereafter it is an on-foot approach required, sadly for the photographer many trees sits close around the church with the western end particularly enclosed, views from the north are available but cause issues on a sunny day.