England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hazelbury Bryan St Mary & St James

The Parish

The parish of Hazelbury Bryan lies in north central Dorset about 4 miles southwest of the small market town of Sturminster Newton. Hazelbury Bryan is a curiously dispersed settlement with three or four distinct clusters within the wider area, Kingston, Droop, Wonston and Hazelbury Bryan all have separate centres with a scatter of farms and cottages in between. Hazelbury Bryan sits within an area largely devoid of numbered roads, the closest being almost 3 miles west where runs the B3143 connecting Dorchester, along the Piddle Valley to the A357 to the west of Dturminster Newton. Hazelbury Bryan, at the time of this transcript, would have been almost totally a pastoral farming community with 80% of the acreage set to pasture; today arable has grown much more significant with the introduction of modern fertilisers and machinery. Minor tributaries of the River Lydden drains the parish into that river which flows northwards before meeting the Dorset Stour and turning back southeast whence it reaches the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Hazelbury Bryan sits in the vale below the chalk ridge of Dorset at a height of roughly 100 metres above the sea land rises abruptly at that escarpment near Woolland to reach 274 metres on Woolland Hill. Dorset parishes are either small or fairly large by southern standards and Hazlebury Bryan was one of the latter, covering almost 2,400 acres it would have supported a population of just over 600 parishioners. Hazelbury Bryan is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary & St James' church sits within the southeastern settlement of Droop on perhaps the highest ground within the settlements at the junction of lanes heading for Woolland. The church is a creation of that great church-building era of the Perpendicular style which flourished between the middle of the 14th century and the early 16th. Pevsner declines to specifically assign a date to the church but in its listing Historic England places the majority of the fabric to the 15th century. Indications of an earlier church can be found in the south chapel where two capitals with the earlier Decorated style have been reused during the construction of today's church. The church follows the standard pattern of nave & chancel with a western tower, in this case augmented with aisles & arcades together with a southern porch and that southern chapel. For once Pevsner fails to mention a Victorian restoration so if one occurred it was obviously light and sensitive, The church sits opposite the village school and has a reasonable car park to its west where a lychgate leads through into the churchyard which is surrounded by a ow local stone wall topped by post & rail fencing. Sadly there are many trees grouped around closely to the southeast removing that faboured aspect and limiting the angles available for the photographer.