England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Tincleton St John the Evangelist

The Parish

The parish of Tincleton lies in southern Dorset roughly 5 miles east of the county town of Dorchester. Tincleton sits about 2 miles west of the B3390 road, a linking road which crosses between the A36 (Dorchester to Poole) road and the A352 (Dorchester to Wareham) road. Tincleton sits on the northern edge of the River Frome's floodplain, it is a long straggle of a village with properties scattered at intervals along a lane which parallels the river's course, many of the properties are in a style associated with an estate village. The village sits astride a geological divide between recent sands and gravels from the Eocene, largely heath and pasture, with chalk further north suitable for arable so a mixed farming economy but separated geologically. The river valley was also exploited for specialist crops such as watercress and osier also in more modern times for extraction of gravels for road building, there being several flooded pits as a consequence.  Tincleton is drained eastwards by the Frome which heads to Poole Harbour and thence to the English Channel. Tincleton is sited at around 40 metres above the sea with land rising northwards Beacon Hill in Puddletown Forest reaches 124 metres as the highest local land. Tincleton was a small parish of almost exactly 1,000 acres which would have supported a population of around 150 parishioners. Domesdsy Tincleton was an even smaller rural manor of just 6 households, held by Earl Hugh of Chester there was just a single plough but ample pastures, meadows and woodland.

The Church

St John's church stands on the southern side of Tincleton's main lane at the junction with the lane arriving from Puddletown. Sadly this is not the church in which these marriages were celebrated rather it was built as a Victorian replacement in 1850. The original parish church dated from the 12th century and occupied a site a little to the south of today's church, it fell into dilapidation and demolished in the 1840s. The replacement church is built in the Early English Gothic style which had regained fashion-ability by the mid-Victorian era, as the parish congregation is small the church consists only of a nave and chancel with a western bellcote. The church is almost totally screened from the roadside by a thick border of trees, once beyond that there are no unavoidable obstacles for the photographer.