England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hemyock St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Hemyock lies in the remote east of Devon forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Somerset. Hempyock is located roughly 5 miles south of the Somerset market town of Wellington and sits at the eastern end of the B3391 road which connects through Culmstock to the main A38 (Bristol to Exeter) road. Hemyock is a large village built at the conjunction of the Medford River with the River Culm and sitting in a vale below Somerset's Blackdown Hills. Most properties are grouped around the main crossroads with an extended arm northwards towards the bridge across the Culm. Like many such parishes in eastern Devon the economy was underpinned by both pastoral farming of dairy cattle but also with a strong component of fruit growing especially the locally notorious cider apples. Hemyock has a castle site with uncertain origins, the licence to crenallate of 1380 being rather late and perhaps post-dating its moat, the castle had a minor role in history as a Civil War garrison. Modern developments came and went for Hemyock, a railway line followed the Culm from Cullompton but that branch line was long ago closed. The Culm drains the parish westwards turning south after Cullompton and meeting the Exe and thence to the English Channel through the latter's estuary. Hemyock is sited at between 120 and 140 metres above the sea on a sloping site rising from the river, land is rolling with the nearby Blackdown Hills rising to almost 280 metres. Comprising just over 4,700 acres Hemyock parish was a little large even by Devon standards within that acreage it would have supported a population of around 1,200 parishioners. In Domesday time Hemyock was held directly by King William, a middling prosperous place offering 10 ploughs as well as extensive meadows, pastures and woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits just west of the main crossroads and termination of the B3391 with entrances off both the Culmstock Road and Cornhill. Whilst this church is undoubtedly medieval in origin it is one which has been extensively modified in Victorian times and is probably unrecognisable for the participants of this transcript. Pevsner speculates that the church had its origins in the 12th century, evidenced by the masonry and the unbuttressed western tower, as a cruciform styled church. That design has been modified at some point to today's layout but the scars remain in the form of blocked arches where the central crossing tower met the broader fabric. A period of work in 1768 rebuilt the church's arcades only for this to be redone along with major work on the southern aisle and the roof which were all rebuilt as part of a general restoration of the 1840s. A broad pavement runs on the western side of Culmstock Road allowing careful parking with an iron gate granting entry from the northern edge of the site. The churchyard is compact and has bordering trees squeezing the resulting small space even more and making for a challenge for the photographer to adequately capture the building.