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

The Parish

The parish of Tarrant Hinton lies in northeastern Dorset not too far from its border with neighbouring Wiltshire. Tarrant Hinton sits roughly 4 miles northeast of the market town of Blandford Forum and on and most northwest of the A354 road which connects Blandford Forum with Salisbury. Tarrant Hinton is one of several carrying the prefix "Tarrant" a reference to the river on which they all sit, Tarrant Hinton runs along the northern banks of that river in a string of properties a quarter mile in extent and just above its flood-plain. Tarrant Hinton would have been, and indeed still is, a farming parish with a mixture of both arable and pastoral methods, the latter consisting of extensive chalk downland for sheep and lusher riverside pastures populated by cattle. The River Tarrant drains the parish southwards before running into the Stour at the last of the "Tarrants", Tarrant Crawford, the Stour heads southeast to eventually reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. In its valley setting Tarrant Hinton sits at around 70 metres above the sea but downland rises both east and west to local high spots reaching 187 metres westwards and just east of Iwerne Minster. Downland parishes are larger than typical southern rural parishes and Tarrant Hinton covering around 2,300 acres is not exceptional in that respect, that acreage would have supported a population of around 250 parishioners. Domesday Tarrant Hinton was altogether larger, large enough to warrant a place amongst the largest 20% of settlements recorded by population in that book, held by Shaftesbury Abbey its assets of just 8 ploughs backed by typical meadows, pastures and woodland seem out-of-kilter with that status, however.

The Church

St Mary's church sits west of the River Tarrant accessed by the rising and dead-end lane of Church Hill which climbs the lower slopes of Barton Hill and gives the site a commanding view over the village. The church is largely a construct of the 14th and 15th centuries and is dominated by the Perpendicular style of those centuries. The main body of nave and chancel is earliest and is built in an attractive mixture of banded flint and Greensand ashlar. Both nave and chancel together with the southern arcade all date from the mid-14th century, the arches of the southern arcade being neat and symmetrical make for a pleasing arrangement. To the west sits the western tower together with the southern aisle and porch, all are of the later 15th century and are more mature in their Perpendicular styling. The battlements of the western tower strike Pevsner are being "over-size" but otherwise they are unremarkable. Building continued into the 16th century from which century comes the southern transept, again in Perpendicular but rather late for this fashion. Two Victorian restorations are documented by Pevsner, the first of 1874 tackled the chancel whilst the second of 1892 was a more thorough affair albeit its stripping of the medieval plaster-work was probably an act of vandalism. Church Hill curves around the sloping site to end at a small car park with room for a few vehicles, most of the site is open to the photographer's needs but beware the steeply sloping drop to the eastern end.