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

The Parish

The parish of Woodleigh lies in southern Devon roughly 3 miles north of the town of Kingsbridge. Woodleigh sits about 1 mile west of the A381 road which links Kingsbridge with Totnes. Woodleigh is a small hill-top village which is little more than a hamlet, a run of properties straggle up a hill with no real village centre. The wider parish covered an area of rolling hilly countryside which is dotted with farms and isolated cottages. Like most of its area the principal activity is in dairy farming, the lush south Devon pastures growing on the familiar red sandstone. That sandstone was once quarried for local building stone but the largest local quarry has closed for extraction now offering a home for the local recycling centre. Woodleigh stands above the Avon valley where modern developments arrived and have since closed, a branch railway line following the valley just skirted Woodleigh parish while linking Kingsbridge to the main line at South Brent. Woodleigh is drained by a combination of Torr Brook and the River Avon which it joins to the southwest, the Avon heads southwest to reach the English Channel at Bigbury on Sea. The village spans from 30 metres above the sea at the Avon up to 100 metres at the highest point of the run of properties in strongly undulating landscape spots to the north reach close to the 190 metre contour. Covering just under 2,000 acres Woodleigh parish was typically sized for the South Hams, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Woodleigh was a comfortably mid-sized rural manor with 32 households, held by Robert D'Aumale it offered 12 ploughs, meadows, pasture & woodland a a fishery.

The Church

St Mary's church stands midway through the run of properties that form the village on the western side of its main lane. Whilst the church follows a typical 14th century plan of nave and chancel with western tower (it also features both northern & southern transepts) and was almost certainly built during that century it suffered a major fire in 1649 which necessitated a full rebuild. Thus the style is Decorated with Perpendicular in places but the fabric is 17th century. A few traces of the original material are reused in both the transept arches and the basal stages of the western tower. Overlaid upon the original 14th century as rebuilt in the 17th we have also a major restoration from 1891 which replaced most of the windows, the roofing and added the battlementation to the tower. Parking is an issue given the typically narrow Devon lane on which the church sits, a few spots are carved into the banks but are often used and full. Metal gates and a step or two grant entry to the churchyard, the church is set back to the northern edges allowing unfettered views from the favoured southern aspects for the photographer.