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

The Parish

The parish of Oxted lies in the east of Surrey not too far from its border with neighbouring Kent. Oxted is located roughly midway between the Surrey market town of Reigate and the Kent one of Sevenoaks being about 7 miles east of the former and the same west of the latter. Oxted is a much expanded village which sits on the A25 road which connects the two mentioned places. Modern communications have led to the creation of New Oxted, the coming of the railway and the commute to the city of London grew the new village substantially and today the modern M25 runs through the parish a mile to its north. At the time of this transcript Oxted would largely have been a farming community, arable mixed with pastures on the adjacent North Downs and a scatter of hop growing made up the mix. Oxted is drained by small brooks, headwaters of the River Eden, which head south and then east to join the Medway and thence the North Sea through the outer Thames Estuary. Oxted is sited at around 100 metres above the sea sitting at the foot of the North Downs which rise to local heights of over 250 metres a couple of miles to Oxted's north. Oxted sits on the Greensand which is followed by a popular local trail of the Greensand Way which passes through Oxted. Oxted parish, like many in this area is elongated north to south to contain a share of each differing land type from chalk to Weald, it was fairly typically sized for the area covering just over 3,400 acres and would have supported a population of around 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Oxted was held by one Eustace of Boulogne and could offer 20 ploughs, small meadows & woodland plus 2 mills making it a prosperous small place even then.

The Church

St Mary's church sits to the west of Oxted's small station on Court Farm Lane. The church has ancient heritage being founded in the Early English Gothic era of the 12th century. Like many churches it has been much altered over the centuries. Whilst the squat tower is 12th century much else has its origins in the early 14th century and where unaltered shows the Decorated fashion of that era. Pevsner bemoans the over-restoration of the church which has resulted in the loss of much dating detail. The church sits in an elevated position above Court Farm Lane, raised to chest height with a local stone wall buttressing the churchyard. A pretty lychgate grants access via a sloping path, there are a few trees grouped around the south side of the tower which restrict the images available from that side but otherwise the churchyard is fairly open.