England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Kings Bromley All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Kings Bromley, in the past it was often known as Bromley Regis due to its holding by a succession of English kings from the Conquest onwards, lies in southeastern Staffordshire roughly 5 miles north of the small city of Lichfield. Kings Bromley sits in the A515 road which connects Lichfield through to the Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne and also sits on the southern banks of the River Trent. The village began life as a crossroads settlement but has expanded to both east and west in modern times to become a mid-sized rural community. It's position in the Trent valley and the extent of its large parish gave the citizens access to a range of farming methods with early gazetteers estimating that 50% was arable and a smaller percentage pastoral with plantations making up the difference. Modern developments have come apace to Kings Bromley, the first to arrive being the Trent & Mersey Canal which passes to its south whilst similarly following a close course is the railway line linking Lichfield with Stafford, extensive power lines linking the Trent-side power stations into the National Grid complete the modernistic picture. Kings Bromley sits where the River Blithe meets the Trent, an area of rich gravel beds exploited in the past and now filled as water-bodies. The Trent heads east passing through Nottingham before turning north to reach the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Kings Bromley is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in the flat valley bottom, away from the Trent land rises only gently to around 160 metres at the edges of nearby Cannock Chase. As already mentioned Kings Bromley parish was an extensive one, covering almost 3,500 or close to double the size of a normal southern rural parish; that extensive acreage supported a population of close to 700 parishioners. King William (the Coinqueror) began the tradition of the regent holding Kings Bromley, its assets then were more modest consisting of 8 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church sits on the northern edge of the village and almost adjacent to the course of the Trent, it is accessed from the A515 by the short dead-end lane of Church Lane. The original church on this site was undoubtedly a small 12th century Norman Romanesque affair but any fabric which still exists is almost certainly not in situ having been largely reused when the church was rebuilt in the early 14th century, Pevsner points out some such stonework in the nave's eastern wall. The main body of the church is thus in the style of the early 14th century namely the Decorated. The style is shown to good effect in the chancel arch, the northern arcade and the northern doorway. Whether as a single continuous build or as a later replacement, the western tower, in particular, is of the later style of the Perpendicular which flourished in the latter half of the 14th century and through the 15th. Also in the same style is the curiously infilled with brick clerestory, a typical Perpendicular feature. Restoration work in more modern times here pre-dated the Victorians with the southern porch and northern vestry probably Georgian in date. A more typical restoration was also conducted in 1870 and the roof of the nave replaced early in the 20th century to complete today's church. Church Lane has ample verges for on-street parking outside the gates, indeed the view from here is the best available, however the churchyard is extensive, open and uncluttered allowing the photographer free rein.