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

The Parish

The parish of Trottiscliffe lies in western Kent roughly 9 miles northeast of the town of Sevenoaks. Trottiscliffe sits about a mile east of the A227 road which links Tonbridge with Gravesend. Trottiscliffe is a small and compact village largely built around a triangle of lanes, a short northern extension head away whilst the church sits just over a quarter mile to the east with a cluster of cottages around it. Trottiscliffe is a spring-line settlement sitting at the base of the chalk escarpment that forms the North Downs, as such it sits upon the narrow band of Greensand with poorer soils, much of the parish was wooded at the time of this transcript and only in modern times has arable farming overtaken pastures and orchards in the parish. Modern developments have come to the parish, immediately south of the village is the confluence of the M20 & M26 motorways. To the north, however, lies the ancient trackway of the Pilgrim's Way, as followed by Chaucer's folk en route to Canterbury. Trottiscliffe is drained eastwards by a network of small brooks which eventually find their way to the Medway near Snodland, the Medway passes through Chatham to meet the outer Thames estuary and thence the North Sea. Trottiscliffe is sited on rising ground from 80 metres at its southernmost point to 110 metres at its northernmost, the escarpment rises dramatically, however, to the north reaching 232 metres immediately above nearby Wrotham. Trottiscliffe was a small parish which covered just under 1,200 acres and would have supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. Domesday Trottiscliffe was even smaller with just 11 households, held by the Bishop of Rochester its assets of 3 ploughs and some meadows & woodland indicate a poor rural manor.

The Church

As already mentioned the church of St Peter & St Paul sits just over a quarter mile east of the village with a cluster of cottages with white fascias. Like many small rural church this is an example from the earliest times of stone-built churches, Pevsner describing it as "a complete, small Norman church", a rare example of a relatively untouched 12th century ensemble. Both the unusually long chancel and the equally narrow nave are of this early times but to the west sits a tower that cuts into the 13th century doorway and blocks a 13th century lancet too. Pevsner concludes the tower to be later than the main body of the church and with a will donation for repairing said tower dated 1509 and Perpendicular styled details concludes it to be probably late 14th century. The piscina appears to be contemporary from the slightly earlier part of the 14th century. Two phases of Victorian restoration have somewhat debased the purity of the church, that of 1875 adding what Pevsner views as "obtrusive windows" whilst that of 1885 rebuilt the western wall of the nave. Church Lane heads east from the village with a hook of a dead-end lane to the north holding the church's entrance, ample parking is available on the verges. A few mature trees are dotted about with a large specimen to the west of the tower, the photographer has adequate views through careful judgement of their angles.