England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Waltham St Bartholomew

The Parish

The parish of Waltham lies in eastern Kent roughly 7 miles south of the city of Canterbury. Waltham is located a little over 2 miles west of the B2068 road which connects Canterbury through to Hythe on the south coast of the county. Waltham is a small village which sits at a triangular meeting of lanes high on the chalk downland of this area, a smaller collection gathers to the east around the church. Like most southern rural parishes farming dominated the local economy, the same situation is found today, slightly more arable than in the past. One feature of these chalk downs is the proportion of land, particularly slopes, set to forest, early gazetteers estimate almost one quarter of the parish acreage so managed and the proportion is still high today. The porous chalk allows no surface drainage in the vicinity of the village with water making its way largely underground northwards towards the Great Stour which heads through Canterbury and into the North Sea through the port of Sandwich. Waltham is sited at around 140 metres above the sea and whilst there is slightly higher ground to the northwest it is only by a few more metres. Waltham parish was fairly typically sized for this area, parishes here are either large by southern standards or quite small, Waltham covered just over 3,200 acres and would have supported a population of around 550 parishioners. Waltham is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Bartholomew's church sits a little to the southeast of the main village crossroads, accessed along Church Lane and sitting above a drop into a steeply sided dry valley lying to its east. The church shows many signs of an early origin, for one thing a central crossing tower is characteristic of a church from earlier periods. The fabric of the nave and, particularly one northern window show the 12th century style of Norman Romanesque. Slightly later is the chancel arch, Pevsner dates it to the early 13th century and of the Early English Gothic period. The origins of the tower are later and Decorated in style from the 14th century but have been largely overridden by Georgian rebuilding. Other 14th century remains can be found in a northeastern window of the nave and internally in the sedilia. The Georgian work of 1808 was to largely rebuild that tower and if further work happened in Victorian times Pevsner neglects to record it, an unusual omission. The church is totally screened by mature trees from every direction except the west where a large unsurfaced parking area may be found. The oblong churchyard is relatively uncluttered but unfortunately the church sits tucked into the southeastern corner, thus removing all of the favoured aspects from the photographer's portfolio and making for a challenging subject especially on a sunny day.