England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Portslade St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Portslade lies in southern Sussex forming a short stretch of its coastline with the English Channel. Portslade is located roughly 4 miles west of the large coastal resort of Brighton and sits between the A27 (Sussex' coastal trunk road) and the A270 road which connects Brighton with Shoreham. This is an area which has changed markedly in modern times, at the time of this transcript Portslade would have been a distinct South Downs village discrete from its much larger neighbours to both east & west. Today Portslade is just a part of the enormous east to west urban sprawl that is this part of coastal Sussex, urban Metropolitan Brighton runs from the banks of the Adur at Shoreham almost for 8 unbroken miles to Ovingdean in the east. The original centre of Portslade, marked as "Portslade Village" and grouped around church & green is set within a sea of properties and the coastline marred by power stations and a refinery. In more bucolic times the economy would have been typical of the Sussex Downs, sheep grazing on the undulating chalk downland. All of this modern development has been fueled by the construction of both the coastal railway line and the improvement of the A27 into an almost motorway-like dual carriageway that nowadays separates village from Downs. As a coastal settlement numerous, mainly subsurface drains lead to the nearby harbour & the English Channel. Portslade is sited, at the church, at around 30 metres above the sea but beyond the A27 land rises steadily to the crest of the South Downs escarpment at 217 metres above Devil's Dyke. Portslade parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering almost 2,000 acres it would have supported a population of close to 650 parishioners, a number multiplied many times to reach today's population. In Domesday times Portslade was a tiny place, held by William de Warenne it could not even muster more than a half share in a plough and recorded just 2 villagers.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits in Portslade Village to the north of the village green and within the fork formed by South Street & Manor Road. In contrast to its urban surroundings the church offers a breath of the 12th & 13th centuries. The oldest portions of the church, 12th century Norman Romanesque in style, are the southern arcade and its aisle, even here later work in the 13th century has converted the original windows to Early English Gothic lancets. This 13th century style is well shown through much else in the church, both the chancel and the unbuttressed western tower show this style rather well. No church would be complete without Victorian intervention and here as well as the usual general restoration the Brackenbury Chapel at the western end was also added in 1874. Street parking can be found outside the churchyard in Manor Road where wooden gates lead through the flint wall leading to a lengthy lathway heading to the church. The churchyard is open & uncluttered with no obstacles for the photographer.