The land lying towards the coast was formerly subject to occasional inundations of the sea, but an effectual barrier has been put by raising a mound round such exposed localities. The extensive area known as Thornton Marsh, was a free open common, used as a pasture by the poor cottagers of the township until 1800, when it was enclosed, together with Carleton Marsh, and has since by cultivation been converted into valuable and productive fields. A church and parsonage house were erected at Thornton in 1835, the former being a neat whitewashed building in the early English style of architecture, with a low square tower, but presenting externally no special features of attraction beyond its profuse covering of ivy, which renders it a most picturesque object in the surrounding landscape. The churchyard also is well worthy of notice, if only for the luxuriance of its foliage, the beauty of its flowers, and the taste and elegance exhibited in several of the monuments. This, like the church and parsonage, is embosomed in trees. The sacred edifice has been named Christ Church, and a separate parochial district was assigned to it in 1862, the title of vicar being accorded to the incumbent. CURATES AND VICARS OF THORNTON. ------------+-------------------------+------------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+-------------------------+------------------------------- 1835 |David H. Leighton | 1837 |Edward Thurtell |Resignation of D. H. Leighton 1841 |St. Vincent Beechey, M.A.| ” ” E. Thurtell 1846 |Robert W. Russell | ” ” St. V. Beechey 1853 |Isaac Durant, M.A. | ” ” W. Russell 1869 |Samuel Clark | ” ” I. Durrant 1870 |Thomas Meadows, M.A. | ” ” S. Clark ------------+-------------------------+-------------------------------