England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stanmer Parish Church

The Parish

The parish of Stanmer lies in southern Sussex not too far from its English Channel coastline and some 4 miles east of the town and coastal resort of Brighton. Stanmer sits just under a mile north of the busy A27 road which links towns along the Sussex coastline from Hastings to Worthing bypassing Brighton to its north. Despite the close proximity of Brighton, which lies just beyond the A27 Stanmer manages to keep its original village form. The parish was an estate village supporting the Palladian house of Stanmer House and its parkland estate, the estate is no longer private ground but a public park open to the masses to enjoy. Of the settlement there is little more than a semi-circle of properties lying to the northwest of the park and below the steep head of the dry valley in which it all lies. At the time of this transcript Stanmer would have primarily been a farming parish with a mixture of arable and sheep raising, the latter grazing the sweet turf atop the chalk downs which surround the settlement. Modern developments have come to the parish with the railway line from Lewes to Brighton passing to the south and granting neighbouring Falmer a station, following a similar line the A27 is not a dual-carriageway highway. The parish sits entirely on porous chalk formations so there is no surface drainage with most water making its way through the bedrock to the nearby English Channel. Stanmer is sited at 80 metres above the sea at the church, the whole is surrounded by the chalk downs of the South Downs which rises to a peak above their escarpment above the Weald which reaches a height of 248 metres at Ditchling Beacon and is crowned with the South Downs Way National Trail. Stanmer was a parish of just over 2,800 acres which would have supported a population of close to 100 parishioners. Domesday Stanmer was altogether much larger consisting of 59 households it was large enough to be listed in the top 20% of settlements by population, a sharp contrast to today's hamlet; held by the Archbishop of Canterbury it offered an impressive 30 ploughs backed by a small wood.

The Church

The parish church has no known dedication, it sits on the northwestern edges of the former estate of Stanmer House, now a public park. Sadly the church which sits here today is not that in which these marriages took place, the church was completed and dedicated in 1838. Like many such Victorian replacement churches it uses the style of the 13th century Early English Gothic which had become re-fashionable. The quality and faithfulness to the style clearly impressed Pevsner who found it a quality piece of work by an unnamed architect. The church follows the standard layout of nave and chancel with a western tower, rather thin and carrying a recessed spire, and transepts. The main access road through the park heads up the dry valley with University of Sussex buildings to its east, at the end of the park is a substantial church car park allowing a relaxed visit. Unfortunately for the photographer the church sits within a clear area only slightly bigger than the church, itself, with thick woodland all around not allowing you to retreat except in a selected few spots, one for the photographer to work out the best aspects.