England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Haydon St Catherine

The Parish

The parish of Haydon lies in northern Dorset forming a short stretch of the border with neighbouring Somerset. Haydon is located roughly 2 miles east of the market town of Sherborne and sits a similar distance north of the A3030 road which heads eastwards from Sherborne towards Sturminster Newton. Haydon is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet with just a scatter of farms and cottages around a loose crossroads of lanes. Like most parishes in this area it was dominated by farming, a mixed regime with pastoral farming in the main. Haydon sits on something of a watershed, streams to the south make their way by the Caundle Brook, river Lydden & the Stour to the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour; those to the north join the Yeo and then the Parrett to meet the Bristol Channel through Bridgwater. Haydon is sited at around 100 metres above the sea and sits on what is for some distance the highest ground. A tiny acreage within a county with many such small parishes, Haydon covered barely 650 acres and within that small area there would have resided close to 100 parishioners. Haydon is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Catherine's church sits at the above mentioned crossroads on its eastern side. Sadly this is not some medieval masterpiece, nor indeed the venue for these marriages. Today's church replaced a prior one in 1883. A simple church of nave & chancel topped with a bellcote it, at least, seeks to echo the Early English Gothic style with lancet windows utilised in parts. The churchyard is double fenced, an inner fence separating the church and its close environs from a wider and triangular site. The surrounding lanes are narrow but parking, carefully, is possible. The site has no obstructions for the photographer.