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

The Parish

The parish of Puncknowle lies in the extreme south of Dorset forming a stretch of the county's English Channel coastline. Puncknowle is located roughly 5 miles southeast of the market town of Bridport and sits a half mile north of the B3157 road which links Bridport with Weymouth as the county's coast road. Puncknowle is a small and compact village which sits tucked away from the sea behind a coastal ridge of higher ground, most properties line the main east to west running lane that forms the spine of the village. The parish is a geologists paradise with contrasting rock forms running parallel to the coastline which is formed by the pebbles and boulders of Chesil Beach, here not separated from the mainland by The Fleet. The contrasting rock types largely determined the farming that they supported, the limestone & chalk inhabited by sheep whilst the damper clay held cattle pastures and a little arable. Today hikers traversing the South West Coastal Trail pass through Puncknowle parish unaware that over the hill lies a prosperous and picturesque Dorset village. Puncknowle is drained westwards, parallel, like the rock beds, to the sea, headed for the gap that serves Bridport where it meets the English Channel at West Bay. Puncknowle is sited on a rising slope, the northern edges at 70 metres whilst the southern edges are at 120 metres rising onto the ridge of Tulk's Hill summiting at 183 metres to the southeast. Puncknowle parish at 1,800 acres was fairly typically sized for its area, within that acreage it would have supported around 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Puncknowle was a typical rural settlement, one held by one Hugh, a son of Grip, offering merely 4 ploughs but with extensive meadows, pastures and woodland supplemented by a mill.

The Church

St Mary's church sits, appropriately enough, on the southern side of Church Street, as the main east to west running lane is named, and almost opposite to The Crown Inn. The church has ancient origins with some major pieces of fabric dating back as far as the 12th century and Norman Romanesque in style. The western tower's main section is the chief amongst that detail albeit with a hipped roof dating from 1678 when the tower was heightened. Also 12th century is the chancel arch, often the earliest part of the main body and a point from which churches were originally built away to both east and west. The main body of nave and chancel, other than the arch which connects them, are of a less certain date but certainly medieval. Unusually the church saw much change during the mid 17th century, besides heightening and capping the tower a south chapel was also added, in this case in 1660. That southern chapel replaced the chapel from Bexington which had been destroyed during a raid by French forces. Like most churches the Victorians made their usual intervention, here it was in 1894 and it involved major change. Almost all windows from the nave and chancel were replaced and in addition today's northern aisle was added. Whilst Church Street is narrow it is widely used by locals for on-street parking, the northern side seems favoured. The churchyard is raised above street height with a flight of steps rising to the gates, the northern side is heavily beset with trees but the southern aspects are clear for use by the photographer.