England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sutton at Hone St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Sutton at Hone lies in northeastern Kent about 2 1/2 miles south of the town of Dartford. Sutton at Hone sits on the A225 road which links Dartford with Sevenoaks. Sutton at Hone is a linear village built largely along the A225 which parallels the course of the River Darent, the village stretches for just over a mile from Farningham Road Railway Station to the start of Church Lane with a few side lanes which are largely short dead-ends. Alongside the Darent to the east of the centre of the village lies the former Commandery of the Knights Hospitaler and the former deer park that accompanied it. At the time of this transcript Sutton at Hone would have had a mixed farming economy, the Darent's water-meadows providing pastureland whilst the drier parts of the parish were arable. Modern developments have come aplenty to Sutton at Hone, the railway line from London to Rochester crosses through the Darent valley granting a shared station at Farmingham Road with neighbouring South Darenth, in addition and to the west of the village runs the modern M25 motorway, London's Orbital Motorway.  The River Darent drains the parish northwards, passing through Dartford to reach the Outer Thames Estuary at Crayford Ness from where water flows east to the North Sea. Sutton at Hone is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in its valley setting, west of the village land rises gently to around 60 metres whilst east of the Darent the fore-hills of the North Downs reach 110 metres near Hartley. Sutton at Hone parish was extensive covering just under 3,600 acres which would have supported a population of close to 1,100 parishioners. Sutton at Hone is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St John's church sits north of the village on the northern side of Church Road which leaves the A225 at the last properties on its eastern side. The church is one from the later medieval period and is built in a mixture of the 14th century styles, the Decorated & Perpendicular. The main body of the church is the earliest fabric with both nave and chancel together with the rather tall southern porch all dating from the first half of the 14th century. The east window of the chancel is a good example of complex tracery from the Decorated period. The western tower is later and Perpendicular in style and comes with a rounded southeastern stair turret.  Like most churches there was a typical Victorian restoration, here it fell in 1862 and besides renewing much of the fabric the work rebuilt the southern arcade using what Pevsner describes as an "alien Early French Gothic". Opposite to the site there is a car park which is rather roughly surfaced, an additional and less traumatic parking space sits outside the gates. The church sits well back from the entrance and has a plethora of trees gathered around it, a close tree to the southeast removes the most favoured aspect and most others are somewhat compromised leaving a limited choice of angles for the photographer.