England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Goodleigh St Gregory

The Parish

The parish of Goodleigh lies in northern Devon and sits roughly 3 miles east of the port & market town of Barnstaple. Goodleigh can be found a little over 2 miles north of the A361 road which links Barnstaple with Tiverton (the North Devon Link Road). Goodleigh is a small and rather linear village which is built on a steeply sloping site up the valley sides of a tributary of the River Yeo. The landscape is deeply incised with steep slopes to the valleys, Goodleigh rises from the tributary at 80 metres above the sea as a rising strip of properties to 160 metres in the crest of the hill. This landscape makes it difficult to work with machinery and pastoral farming thus dominates the local economy. Devon is famous for its dairy products and the dairy cows needed are well served here. Early gazetteers mention a local cherry orchard speciality too. The small tributary draining Goodleigh soon meets the Yeo and flows through Barnstaple joining the joint estuary of the Taw & Torridge to meet the outer Bristol Channel. As mentioned already Goodleigh is a hilly place eastwards land continues to rise onto the fore-slopes of Exmoor reaching 265 metres on nearby Stoodleigh Down and 310 metres at the ancient hill-fort of Mockham Down. Goodleigh parish was relatively small in extent, covering just 1,000 acres which would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Goodleigh was equally small and rural, held by one Robert de Aumale its assets totalled 10 ploughs backed by small areas of meadows, pastures & woodland.

The Church

St Gregory's church sits on the northern edge of the village with steep slopes rising behind it & inside a churchyard that is steeply sloping too. Early gazetteers describe an "ancient structure in the early English style" implying a church of the 13th century and the Early English Gothic style. Sadly all except the medieval tower was swept away by a complete rebuilding in 1881, the majority of this church would be unrecognisable to the participants in these marriages. The 15th century Perpendicular western tower is the only medieval fabric remaining, complete with diagonal buttresses and pinnacles it is a fairly typical example of the style. The main body of nave and chancel is, however, of 1881 albeit with reset memorials and a painted Royal Arms from earlier times internally. The lane passing the church is well used for on-street parking, entry is through red-painted metal gates and up a rise of steps. The steeply sloping churchyard presents the only obstacle for the photographer within the churchyard, the position of the church, tight to the southern edge does, however, impede the most favoured aspects.