England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ashburton St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Ashburton lies in southern Devon roughly 19 miles southwest of Exeter and 24 northeast of Plymouth. Ashburton is a mid-sized market town which formerly lay on the A38 road which links Exeter & Plymouth and sits on the southeastern edge of Dartmoor. Ashburton is a rather linear town, the majority of properties lie either side of the former A38, now B3352, which runs from northeast to southwest, there have been modern developments to both the north of the northern part and infill between the old & new routes of the A38 but essentially the town is a ribbon of urban properties stretching for almost 2 miles. Ashburton has a long history, it was made a borough in 1238 and achieved its market in 1310, its prosperity coming from two distinct sources; the wide parish has extensive herds of cattle, a source of trade along with other agricultural produce, but it is from the extractive industries that Ashburton  really earned its income. In the later Middle Ages Ashburton was one of only 4 Devon towns allowed to trade in tin whilst copper was also extracted and traded. Supplementing these sources the town became noted for the production of cloth, especially serge for which it had a lucrative contract with the East India Company. Modern developments have come to the town with the raising of the A38 almost to motorway standard, a welcome relief from the congestion the town streets once suffered. Today Ashburton is an important tourist centre for exploring Dartmoor, a base for many to stay. Ashburton is drained southwestwards by the River Ashburton which meets the Dart at nearby Buckfastleigh before heading into the English Channel by the latter's broad sea channel. Ashburton sits in a steeply sided valley at around 70 metres above the sea, some of the modern developments to its northern edge rise as high as 100 metres whilst the strongly undulating countryside rises to 313 metres at nearby Ausewell Rocks to the town's west, a forerunner of much higher ground onto Dartmoor proper. Ashburton parish was one of the most extensive in its county, covering almost 5,100 acres it is reminiscent of northern upland parish in extent, of that acreage almost 10% is, however, described as "waste" in early gazetteers; Ashburton parish would have supported around 3,800 parishioners. In Domesday times Ashburton was a holding of the Bishop of Exeter offering 18 ploughs, some meadows & pastures and extensive woodland of a league, forests are still a feature of the local landscape, its population was sufficient to place it amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits on the southern side of the old A38 almost opposite the Old Exeter Inn and set back within an extensive churchyard. Whilst there has been a church here since early times the church that stands today was largely rebuilt during the stannary period when the tin trade made the town rather wealthy, local benefactors improving the church to the benefit of all. As a consequence the church is largely of a single phase of building and of the early 15th century throughout, the Perpendicular style of that date being well shown by its architecture. Its western tower is the church's showpiece, standing at 92 feet (28 metres) in height it is something of a local landmark. The remainder of the church is built in a limestone rubble and Pevsner is especially taken with the composition of the northern face completed of a stair turret, aisle, porch, transept and chancel and complete with embattlements throughout. As is usual a Victorian restoration made significant changes to the church, in this instance it fell in the early 1880s and rebuilt the tower arch & most of the western windows besides being a thorough restoration of much else. There is limited parking to the south of the churchyard entrance, a marked bay allowing a few to park safely. Massive iron gates of 1700 mark the main entrance to the churchyard, whilst there are scattered clumps of trees all around there enough spaces to get satisfactory views of the church, enough to satisfy most photographers.