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

The Parish

The parish of Bridport lies in southwestern Dorset about 14 miles west of Dorchester. Bridport is a market town and port, albeit some 2 miles from the sea but accessed via the River Brit. Bridport has been the local market town for the area for many hundreds of years and has a pre-Conquest history as well as involvement in both the English Civil War and also the Monmouth Rebellion. Bridport is located on the A35 road which Dorchester with Exeter, the main road now passing in a bypass to the south of the town. Bridport was also a major port for Dorset, not only for the shipping out of local produce but also for allowing entry of coal and raw materials from the rest of Britain and Europe. The port was also a significant shipbuilding enterprise. Nowadays Bridport is still a thriving market town and also has a holiday function through its satellite settlement at West Bay. The area around Bridport would largely have been used for a mixed farming regime, cattle in the valley bottoms, sheep on the Downs and arable on the better soils. The River Brit drains the parish to the English Channel just two miles to the south. Bridport is sited between 5 and 20 metres above the sea and rolling chalky downs rise close by to local heights of over 160 metres on Quarry Hill. Bridport parish was extremely small in extent covering only the market town itself and was thus barely 70 acres in all, the population was almost 5,000 parishioners. In Domesday Book Bridport is shared by the Abbey of Saint Wandrille, the Bishop of Salisbury and the King himself. There are no detailed statistics specific to the parish but it was, even then, a thriving settlement and heavily taxed (nothing changes!).

The Church

St Mary's church sits to the south of the town centre on the western side of South Street. Its cruciform layout is typical of an early church but Pevsner is loath to grant it that date. The building is dated to a mixture of the Early English and perpendicular styles, the 13th century elements are confined to the transepts whereas the tower and much else is Perpendicular, documentary evidence places the main build in the early 15th century. The western bays, chancel and chancel chapel are all Victorian rebuild but to a consistent and sympathetic styling. The church sits close to the roadway, a foot high wall separating the eastern end from the pavement. There are gaps to access the churchyard and the whole sight is relatively open and free of photographic obstructions.