England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Harford St Petrock

The Parish

The parish of Harford lies in southern Devon roughly 2 1/2 miles north of the market town of Ivybridge. Harford sits a similar distance north of the A38 road which links Exeter with Plymouth on the southwestern edge of Dartmoor. Harford is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet, with a group of properties gathered near to the parish church on the eastern banks of the River Erme. The parish is a long thin strip extending from the high moors of Dartmoor, a quarter of the parish is described as "waste" by early gazetteers, where only rough upland grazing occurs, the lower part of the parish are roughly equal arable to pasture. Several attempts have been made over time to exploit tin deposits but have always been abandoned as un-economic, the local granite is only used for local stonework. The local landscape shows many signs of early man's occupation with many settlements dotted up the Erme valley and the moors littered with ancient cairns. Today Harford provides access to Dartmoor for outdoor hikers as a footpath climbs from the village to join the local Two Moors Way Trail. Harford is drained southwards by the River Erme which flows the short distance to the English Channel at Mothecombe. Harford is sited at around 210 metres above the sea with Dartmoor's high tops reaching 464 metres at the Three Barrows on Ugborough Moor. Covering just over 2,000 acres Harford parish would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Harford was an equally small farming community held by Count Robert of Mortain it offered just 3 ploughs and some pasture.

The Church

St Petrock's church stands on the eastern side of the only lane passing through the tiny settlement, it sits around 100 metres east of that road's crossing of the Erme. There is no doubt that the site is one where an early Christian church was established in what was known as the "Dark Ages", some sources date the site to the 6th century. Of course nothing remains of that vintage but the church does hold fabric from Saxon times, the base of the western tower and the lower parts of the vestry transept are pre-Conquest and possibly as early as the 10th century. Most of today's church, however, comes from a rebuilding of the 15th century with a 4-bay arcade and 2-stage tower completed in the Perpendicular style. By the mid 19th century the church was in disrepair and a major restoration was undertaken which rebuilt the northern wall and reconstructed the southern porch. The lane passing the churchyard is typically narrow and confined as are many in Devon, at the right-angled bend east of the Erme's crossing it is more open and possible to park without blocking farm entrances. The church is largely screened from that lane by thick tree cover which is a feature of the churchyard limiting most favourable views simply to southern aspects.