Life Events

  • Weddings and Blessing Services

    Weddings are an opportunity to celebrate the love of one person for another, they are an occasion to get together with our friends and families for a really special day. If you live in one of the villages, or the surrounding area and wonder if you might be might able to get married at St Lawrence or St Margaret’s Church, then please contact our vicar.

  • Baptism/Christening

    Baptism, also known as Christening, is an important event in life. It is an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ for the safe delivery of a child; to celebrate that birth with friends and family and to ask for God’s blessing. The Church understands Baptism to be the beginning of the Christian life journey, through baptism we become members of the worldwide Church.

  • Funerals

    The death of someone we love is a sad and stressful time. If you live in the village, or in the surrounding area, and you would like to arrange a funeral at St Lawrence or St Margaret’s Church then please call our vicar.

Searches in Registers

I receive many requests for information about records held at St Lawrence Seal Chart and St Margaret's Underriver. Almost all records of baptism, marriages and burials, except the most recent have now been transferred to the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone, where they can be consulted by the public. However if you are tracing your family history and think an ancestor may have had a St Lawrence Seal Chart or St Margaret's Underriver connection I will be happy to help you if I can.  As a part-time priest here, and with no other paid staff and a very full workload,  there are limits on the time I can give to this, though, so I would ask your co-operation and understanding. I am entitled to make a charge for time spent searching records or helping you to search, which goes to church funds, of £30 for each hour or part of an hour.

If you are planning a trip to search for an ancestor, and might want access to records kept here, PLEASE contact me in advance to arrange a convenient time, otherwise you may find that no one is available to help you, and you will have wasted your journey. In particular I would advise against just turning up just before or after a Sunday service - I often have a great deal to do at this point (and possibly other services to conduct) and I will not be able to help you, nor will I be able to let you look at the records in my absence. While I do not wish to seem unhelpful, if it is at all possible for you to consult with records at the record office instead, I would greatly prefer that you did so.