England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Teston St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Teston lies in western central Kent about 4 miles west of the town of Maidstone. Teston sits on the A26 road which connects Maidstone with Tonbridge. A compact village, Teston is largely built on the northern side of the A26 with most properties either side of the lane leading to East Malling with a smaller portion leading downhill towards the River Medway. Part of the village's bridge over the Medway dates from the mediaeval period, it is followed by today's B2163 road. Modern communications pass through the parish in the form of the Maidstone to Paddock Wood branch rail line but Teston has no station. Teston would have been an agricultural community with farming varying from pastures by the Medway, arable predominating with some orchards and market gardens. The Medway drains the parish eastwards, passing through Maidstone it reaches the outer Thames Estuary through the port of Chatham and thence to the North Sea. Teston is sited at around 40 metres above the sea, it sits within The Weald which undulates to local heights of just over 100 metres on the Greensand Ridge to Teston's south. Teston parish was one of the smaller in a county of small parishes, it covered only 500 acres and would have supported a population of about 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Teston was equally small, one of the many holdings of Bishop Odo of Bayeux it could offer just 3 ploughs, small meadows & woodland but did have a mill.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits a couple of hundred metres north of the A26 and is accessed by Church Street from the East Malling lane. The church dates from a complete rebuild of the 18th century, an unusual era for church building. The church also has an unusual layout being cruciform yet with the tower placed to the west. Despite being built from 1736 it was extensively refreshed just a century later in 1846 when Gothic style tracery was added to both chancel and transept windows. The church clearly had little architectural interest for Pevsner whose description is limited to a handful of lines. Church Street has a large wide village green on its southern side at the end of that feature lies the church with a small pull-in by the lychgate. The church sits rather squashed up to the boundary wall on its northern side but views from the south are adequate for photography, the western view of the tower being particularly attractive.