England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sidbury St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Sidbury lies in southeastern Devon about 6 miles south of the market town of Honiton and quite close to Devon's English Channel coastline. Sidbury sits on the A375 road which connects Honiton along the valley of the River Sid to the seaside resort of Sidmouth. Sidbury was formerly a small market town but that status lapsed in competition with both Honiton & Ottery St Mary and today Sidbury is merely a large village mostly spread along the valley bottom to both north and, in particular, south of the centrally placed church. Like many Devon villages Sidbury would have been underpinned by pastoral farming, today a degree of tourist income comes to the village from visitors keen to explore the nearby coast and hills. The Sid drains the parish the short distance of a little over 2 miles to the nearby English Channel at Sidmouth. Sidbury is sited at around 60 metres above the sea but sits within a deeply incised valley with land rising in billowing hills to almost 250 metres on nearby East Hill. Eastern Devon is a landscape of relatively small parishes but Sidbury parish was notably large, covering just over 8,200 acres it was more typically sized for an upland northern parish, that vast acreage would have supported a population of almost 1,800 parishioners. In Domesday times Sidbury was also a large place, held by the Bishop of Exeter its population at that time placed it into the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that tome, it held an impressive 27 ploughs as well as extensive meadows, pastures and woodland.

The Church

St Giles church sits at the heart of the village on the eastern side of the A375 here known as Fore Street. Outwardly a simple Perpendicular church the interior and close examination by Pevsner reveals a deeply ancient structure and a complex of periods and styles. Beneath the building a structure of unknown function but believed to be a mausoleum was discovered infilled and is believed to pre-date the Norman Conquest, potentially 10th or early 11th century. Of the 12th century comes the tower base and chancel which shows styling of the Norman Romanesque period whilst the arcades come from the Transitional period of the last quarter of the 12th century. The church was clearly subject to a major restoration or rebuild during the Perpendicular period as this style shows throughout overlain on the basal fabric. Much change also occurred in Victorian times, the original pyramidal stone spire was removed as it was feared it would collapse and a (cheap according to Pevsner) wooden spire erected in 1843, this was, in turn, replaced by today's needle spire in 1884. A further restoration occurred in 1898 to complete a busy half century of work. Fore Street is quite narrow for an A road but there is parking immediately north of the church or outside the Red Lion Inn if lucky. The church sits behind a chest-height local stone wall with the main entrance at the northern end. An open and uncluttered churchyard makes for an easy subject to capture.