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

The Parish

The parish of Cerne Abbas lies in western central Dorset roughly 8 miles north of the county town of Dorchester. Cerne Abbas sits on and mostly east of the A352 road which links Dorchester with Sherborne. Today's Cerne Abbas is much reduced from its early importance, once a small market town offering silk working, brewing & tanning as its main industries the town has declined with the end of such industry into merely a large village. The wider parish would have primarily been a haven for grazing sheep on the short-turfed downs of the surrounding chalk-lands, today a more arable scene predominates, in addition the valley pastures would have held grazing cattle. Cerne Abbas, as its name suggests, was founded to support and derive much of its wealth from the Benedictine Abbey, commenced in the reign of King Edgar and completed in 987, that stands guard over the village despite the effects of Henry VIII's dissolution. The former abbey stands to the northeast of the village which largely consists of two crossing streets with Long Street, running west to east and east of the A352 its most important commercial street. Mention of Cerne Abbas today, of course, would not be complete without mentioning today's major tourist attraction, sited on the southern slopes and above the abbey lies the Cerne Abbas Giant, a turf-cut figure 200feet high and 165 feet wide of a figure holding a club and showing his manhood proudly. Controversy rages over its dates and origins but undoubtedly it is a major draw for tourist to the village. Cerne Abbas stands on the banks of the River Cerne which flows through its centre, it drains southwards joining the Frome north of Dorchester before turning east to reach the English Channel through the expanse of Poole Harbour. Cerne Abbas is sited at around 120 metres above the sea deeply sunk into its valley and surrounded by rolling chalk downs which rise to 260 metres on the down above the Giant. Cerne Abbas parish was extensive for a southern parish, covering just over 2,800 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,300 parishioners. By Domesday times Cerne Abbas has already sufficient population as to place it amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, held by the Abbey it was a very wealthy holding, indeed; its recorded assets of 21 ploughs being augmented by meadows, pastures & woodland and there was a mill too.

The Church

St Mary's church stands on the eastern side of Abbey Stret immediately north of its junction with Long Street. Externally the changes wrought over the centuries appear to have created a unified wholly late-Perpendicular styled town church, but the true story, thanks to Pevsner's forensic examination is much more complex. The late 13th century and Early English Gothic chancel is the earliest portion of the church, albeit the eastern wall of the same dates from work of 1639. The original church undoubtedly was a late 13th century building but a series of later transformations is required to result in today's church. Major work began in the mid-15th century when the aisles & arcades together with most of the eastern wall was replaced in a Perpendicular style. The remaining walls, to the west of the porch, and encompassing the signature western tower all date from replacement given a tentative date of c1500. The western tower of Ham Hill stone is rightly described by Pevsner as "one of the finest in the county". In typical Perpendicular fashion a clerestory was inserted c1530 to improve internal lighting and a century later the chancel was largely refaced. Work had still not finished in more modern time as a typical Victorian restoration of 1870 made work on the chancel arch and removed galleries, even in the late 20th century, in 1967, further restoration was completed to arrive at today's impressive complexity. There is limited street parking in Abbey Street so a village car park is the optimal choice for a visit. The church sits flush to the street's pavement with a 6-inch wall only separating it from passersby. The iconic western tower sits flush to the street and the whole sits within a rather confined churchyard where getting adequately far away seems tricky given the proximity of neighbouring properties, a real challenge for the photographer leaving only the southwestern aspect as the most open aspect available.