England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Dunchideock St Michael & All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Dunchideock lies in southern Devon roughly 4 miles southwest of the city of Exeter. Dunchideock sits a little under 3 miles west of the A38 road which links Exeter through to Torbay. Dunchideock is a dispersed settlement with no real village, a series of small clusters of farms and cottages dot a hillside southwest of the infant River Kenn, the largest such cluster being around the church. Dunchideock parish is one of the smaller in its county and has a population to match. Like most Devon parishes Dunchideock was and still is largely a farming parish, here cattle and particularly dairy cattle, were dominant on the rich pastures growing upon the iconic red sandstone of the area. Dunchideock is drained southeastwards by the Kenn which eventually runs into the outer Exe estuary just north of Starcross and thence to the English Channel. Dunchideock is sited between 80 and 130 metres above the sea, it rises from the Kenn to the ridge-tops which is the general hill-top height in this strongly rolling countryside, to the south land continues rising, however, to the local summit of Haldon Belvedere at 226 metres. At barely 950 acres, there are only a few smaller parishes in Devon, Dunchideock was tiny and supported barely 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Dunchideock was equally small and rural, held by one Ralph Paynel it offered 5 ploughs together with the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Michael's church (the dedication varies from source to source it is either St Michael & All Angels, St Michael the Archangel whilst early gazetteers have it as Holy Trinity, we choose to go with Pevsner) stands on rising ground alongside farms and cottages and surrounded by pastures. Pevsner is light on dating detail but Historic England are more forthcoming, the church has its origins in 13th century as a mere nave and chancel albeit little significant fabric remains of that early church. The Perpendicular era of the 15th century saw the construction of what we saw today, a northern aisle was added to that nave and chancel as well as the church's distinctive feature, its slender western tower complete with stair turret. Further work in the 17th century, in 1669, saw the northern chancel chapel reordered whilst typical Victorian restorations brought the church back from "a picture of desolation" as it was so described in 1846. The first of 1850 restored order whilst the second of the 1870s took the church to the condition we see today. Access to the church is almost from the front of an adjacent farm, parking on rough ground outside, a flight of steps leads past post & rail fencing to a churchyard which has no obstacles for the photographer.