England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sandford Orcas St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Sandford Orcas, until 1896, sat in the extreme south of Somerset, it was transferred to Dorset in that year and now sits on the northern edge of its new county. Sandford Orcas is located roughly 3 miles north of the market town of Sherborne and sits a mile west of the B3145 road which connects Sherborne through towards Wincanton. Sandford Orcas is a rather linear village sitting at the base of a prominent Jurassic limestone escarpment, a spring-line settlement, the village straggles for almost a mile from the church & manor house at its northwestern end through to High Sandford in a bowl within the escarpment at its southeast. Sandford Orcas would have had a mixed farming regime with parts of the parish on the high ground being mainly grazing for sheep whilst the lower ground immediately around the village would have been more arable. A pair of small streams emerge from the limestone area, merge at the village and head northwestwards to eventually meet the River Yeo, the Yeo continues steadily westwards merges with the Parrett and the latter reaches the outer Bristol Channel to the north of Bridgwater. Sandford Orcas is sited at around 70 metres above the sea with the parish church some 10 metres lower, the escarpment rises immediately east of the village quickly reaching 172 metres on Holway Hill the highest ground around. Sandford Orcas was a small parish of 1,100 acres which would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Sandford Orcas was held by a chamberlain, Humphrey, it offered 6 ploughs backed by meadows, pastures & woodland, a typical small farming manor.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits at the northwestern end of the small village alongside the 16th century manor house, the pair making for a neat group. St Nicholas is a typical church of the later medieval period being almost totally in a mixture of the Decorated & Perpendicular styles and subject to the usual Victorian restoration and changes. The earlier 14th century style of the Decorated is shown rather well by the chancel despite many of its windows being altered to Perpendicular by the Victorians. The church was undoubtedly remodelled in the mid 15th century as the remaining fabric, the western tower, nave, southern chapel and porch all date from the mid-15th century and are solidly Perpendicular in style. The western tower is of 2 stages with typical battlementation favoured at that time and comes complete with stair-turret. The Victorian restoration came in 1872 and besides making a few changes to the existing fabric it added the northern aisle and replaced many of the internal fittings including the reredos. As the lane passing the church is quite narrow only careful & considerate parking is possible with the verge south of the site muddy but acceptable. The church sits well above road height with a flight of steps rising to it from the driveway to the manor house. The churchyard is fairly busy with trees requiring careful choice of viewpoints by the photographer.