England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Folkington St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Folkington lies in East Sussex not too far from its English Channel coastline. Folkington is located roughly 6 miles northwest of the coastal resort of Eastbourne and sits as a spring-line settlement at the base of the northern escarpment of the South Downs and roughly 1 mile south of t the busy A27 road which connects nearby Polegate with Brighton. Folkington is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet which sits at the southern end of a dead-end lane which terminates beneath the steep face of the chalk escarpment, the presence of Folkington Manor is probably indicative of its status as an estate village. The geography of the parish gives a wide diversity of land-forms leading to a diversity of agriculture too, arable in the Wealden portion and sheep once grazed the sweet turf of the Downs, nowadays turning increasingly arable too. Small streams drain the parish north and then west to meet the Cuckmere River which has dissected the chalk ridge to meet the English Channel at Cuckmere Haven. Folkington is sited at around 60 metres above the sea but such is the steepness of the escarpment that it rises to 214 metres in less than a mile, a feature exploited at neighbouring Wilmington where that steep face bears the "Long Man" chalk drawing. Folkington parish covered around 1,450 acre making it typically sized for its area, that acreage would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. Domesday Folkington was possibly even smaller than today's version, held by Count Robert of Mortain its only assets were 4 ploughs.

The Church

St Peter's church sits at the very terminus of the village's dead-end lane, tight beneath the chalk hill and passed by the regional Weald Way Trail. Like many small isolated rural churches St Peter has been largely left alone since its first construction. Here the evidence of lancet styled windows in both nave and chancel indicate its build as a single phase in the 13th century and in the Early English Gothic style of that century. Internally the nave and chancel are as one with no structural division but the chancel externally is a little lower. The western end of the church is decorated with a weatherboarded bell-turret of uncertain vintage. The narrow lane is widened marginally enough to permit a car to not block it when parked, a short path leads to the metal gates granting entry to the rather compact churchyard. Trees hug closely to the southern face removing entirely the favoured aspects and making for a considerable challenge for the photographer to adequately record this tiny rural gem.