England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chessington St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Chessington lies in northern central Surrey but also not too far from its border with neighbouring Middlesex, which is formed here by the River Thames. Chessington is located about 2 miles south of Kingston upon Thames and sits just east of the A243 road which connects Kingston upon Thames with Leatherhead. Whilst Chessington was once a small and separate rural Surrey village it has inexorably been swallowed by the expansion of Greater London and is now a part of the contiguous metropolitan area, a process aided by the construction of its own branch line railway from Clapham Junction. The former village is nowadays enclosed within a swathe of modern developments. Chessington, today, is probably most known for the presence of its zoo, now more tactfully renamed as Chessington World of Adventures which lies a mile or so south of Chessington proper. At the time of this transcript Chessington would have been a relatively small village steeped in farming, arable dominating despite the heavy clay soils hereabouts. The Hogsmill river drains the parish the two or so miles into the Thames and thence through the capital to the North Sea. Chessington is sited at around 50 metres above the sea on something of a local high point, land rises steadily away from the Thames to local heights a further 14 metres higher within a mile or two. Chessington parish was small for a rural Surrey parish, it covered just over 1,200 acres and would have supported a population of just over 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Chessington was a small place of just 6 ploughs, a small wood and a half share in a mill, it was jointly held by Count Gilbert's son Robert & Miles Crispin.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on Church Lane, a half mile east of the A243 and the rail line. Pevsner seems almost fond of this church describing it as a "kind, small old village church in a new housing estate". The church is certainly old, the lancet, slit windows are indicative of the Early English Gothic period and 13th century in date. Both nave and chancel show these lancets which is probably indicative of a single building campaign albeit much modified by later changes. The church is small and lacks a tower being topped by a bell-turret complete with shingles broach spire. That spire was restored in 1854 and the southern aisle received similar treatment in 1870 to result in today's church. The church sits where Church Lane morphs into Garrison Lane with the road curving around the site, there is no immediate parking by the church but side roads have spaces within reach. The churchyard is surrounded by thick but neatly clipped hedging but the church is tight to the southern boundary making the best images obtainable being from outside the churchyard.