England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wimborne St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Wimborne St Giles lies in the far east of Dorset not too far from its border with neighbouring Hampshire. Wimborne St Giles is located roughly 8 miles west of the small Hampshire town of Fordingbridge and sits just over a mile west of the B3078 road which connects Fordingbridge with Wimborne Minster. Wimborne St Giles is a small and slightly linear village lying on the eastern banks of the infant River Allen with most properties stretching northwards along both sides of the valley from the church and the estate of St Giles House. Like many Dorset parishes Wimborne St Giles was a farming parish, arable in the main but with a healthy percentage of pastoral making for a mixed regime. The lower reaches of the parish, away from the chalk substrate are often left to common & heathland reminiscent of nearby New Forest lands. The River Allen drains the parish southwards passing through Wimborne Minster to join the Dorset Stour and reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Wimborne St Giles is sited at around 50 metres above the sea in its valley setting, land rises away from the Allen in gentle chalk downs reaching to just over 100 metres. Wimborne St Giles parish had an elongated shape with the east to west width being narrow but extending for some distance from north to south, the whole being fairly typically sized for eastern Dorset covering just over 1,700 acres which would have supported a population of around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Wimborne St Giles was an altogether more important place and one of the 20% largest settlements recorded in that book, shared by no fewer than 6 landholders with the major portion retained by King William the parish had a phenomenal level of recorded assets, collectively the parish held 38 ploughs, extensive meadows, pasture & woodland and a hugely profitable 10 mills, a wealthy series of holdings and one of the largest recorded in that book, a complete contrast to today's small village.

The Church

St Giles' church sits on the boundary between village and estate to the south of most properties and reached along the valley by the access road to St Giles House estate, it would be neglectful not to mention the splendid series of almshouses which line this lane, a picture postcard approach if ever there was. The church, however, is not a medieval one having been rebuilt at the behest of the estate in 1732 just prior to these events recorded here. The Early Georgian building shows a neat pattern of chequered work in a mixture of flint & greensand. Despite the relatively modern construction date wotk was necessitated in 1908 after a fire broke out and caused significant damage, Pevsner bemoans the quality of work done to repair that damage including the insertion of aisles into the 18th century nave and leaving the latter "preposterously narrow". The lane is broad enough for parking opposite the almshouses and has a neat turning circle outside the estate gates. The church sits rather disturbingly close to the road, almost seeming to be outside the walls of the churchyard with only a knee-high wall to the south separating it. sadly the eastern end is closely hugged by trees removing the favoured southeastern aspect and severely limiting the angles available for the photographer.