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

The Parish

The parish of Thorpe lies in the extreme northwest of Surrey forming part of the county's border with neighbouring Middlesex whilst Buckinghamshire is also not too far away. Thorpe is located roughly 2 miles southwest of the town of Staines and sits between the A320 & B388 roads both of which link Staines with Chertsey by differing routes. Thorpe is small compact village which sits immediately east of the B388 within the extensive flood-plain of the nearby River Thames. At the time of this transcript Thorpe would have been primarily a farming parish with almost equal distribution of arable and pastoral regimes, the pastures created by the flood-plain giving excellent grazing pasture. The flood-plain has, however, given the area one of its most distinctive features as it is underlain by extensive river-wash gravels which have been extracted for mainly road construction and subsequently infilled with water creating numerous water bodies. Modern developments swarm around Thorpe but leave it still intact as a semi-rural community, the railways stayed a little away but the modern motorways of M25 & M3 both run through the parish and their vast interchange lies under a mile from the relative tranquility of the parish church. Today Thorpe is something of a commuter settlement for its many nearby light industrial and service industries. The short stretch of The Bourne soon meets the Thames near to Chertsey and from there through the capital to the North Sea. Thorpe is sited at around 15 metres above the sea in the relatively flat terrain of the Thames valley, a small isolated outcrop of firmer rock makes nearby St Ann's Hill the local high spot at 69 metres. Thorpe parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just under 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 550 parishioners. In Domesday times Thorpe was an equally modest rural settlement held by Chertsey Abbey and offering 9 ploughs plus the usual meadows and pastures.

The Church

St Mary's church sits towards the eastern end of the village accessed along the short dead-end lane of Church Approach from Coldharbour Lane. Pevsner speculates that the church was built by the canons of nearby Chertsey Abbey who held the village manor, he cites the early fabric of the 12th century chancel arch as the earliest evidence for this 12th century origin in the Norman Romanesque architectural era. The next piece in date sequence are the arcades which are from a century later and in the Early English Gothic style. Much else is of the early 14th century and shows the style from the Decorated period and is perhaps indicative of a significant rebuild during the early part of that century. Minor works carried on throughout the 14th and 15th century which are evidenced by tracery of a 15th century style in the squints (openings in a wall to allow a view of the altar) in the nave. The pretty western brick tower is the latest major piece of the church and was completed during the 17th century a period usually not producing much new church build. The major restoration of 1868 saw the 13th century arcades demolished and rebuilt as well as producing a general restoration to complete the church as we see it now. Church Approach is sufficiently wide enough to support on-street parking outside the neat lychgate that forms the main entrance and neatly frames the church. Sadly the church is rather hemmed in from the south making it a rather tricky subject to acquire on a sunny day.