England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bampton St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Bampton lies in the extreme northeast of Devon, its "U" shape forming two stretches of the border with neighbouring Somerset. Bampton is located roughly 7 miles north of the town of Tiverton and sits a mile north of the A396 road which runs northwards from Tiverton all of the way to the northern coast of Somerset at Dunster. Bampton is a small market town, its market being granted in 1258 by King Henry III, situated in the deeply incised valley of the Batherm. Most of Bampton's properties lie in twin settlements either side of the river with that to its west holding the centre and the church. Bampton's extensive parish has excellent quality limestone and the quarrying of this for building stone was extensively carried out, the other main activity of the rural area was typically pastoral farming. The town, itself, besides being a centre for local trade and specialist skills was engaged in  cloth manufacturing, in particular a cloth known as serge. Modern developments have come and gone from Bampton, a branch railway line from Tiverton through to Somerset's Dulverton formerly passed through Bampton granting a station but has been closed and has largely disappeared. Bampton is drained southwards by the Batherm the short distance to to meet the Exe, the latter continues southwards to eventually meet the English Channel through its own estuary to the south of Exeter. At the Batherm's bridge Bampton is sited at 100 metres above the sea, it has expanded in recent times, climbing the valley sides such that its outer parts are some 20 metres higher, the wider countryside is strongly rolling with local hill tops as high as 255 metres on nearby Covedown Knap to the south. Bampton parish was an extensive own, covering close to 7,800 acres it was more reminiscent in size to a northern upland parish, within that acreage it would have supported a population of a little over 2,000 parishioners. Even in Domesday times Bampton was an important settlement, large enough in population size to be amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, shared between William de Mohun & Walter of Douai its assets totalled 20 ploughs, extensive meadows, pastures & woodland and there was also a mill making it a very wealthy holding indeed.

The Church

St Michael's church sits in the heart of the western portion of the town, the town's centre, and is tucked away behind fronting properties. The earliest portion of the church is represented by a few fragments of fabric at the base of the western tower and by the southern wall of the nave, Pevsner declines to firmly date these fragments but Historic England more confidently grants a date of 13th century. The largest surviving early piece is the chancel which is in the Decorated style of the early 14th century. Sitting on that 13th century base is the main body of the church which was clearly rebuilt in the late-medieval church-building era of the Perpendicular and dates from the 15th century. The church, however, has received two phases of Victorian restoration which were quite thorough in their work, the first, of 1872, tackled the roofs but the second of the late 1890s was a more extreme overhaul resulting in today's church. Parking should be sought in one of the town's car parks and the church approached on foot by an alley behind the Swan Inn, if fortunate street parking is possible in Luke Street where a second alley leads to the extensive churchyard. The church, thankfully is tucked into its northern edge so the favoured aspects remain available to the photographer.