England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
South Hanningfield St Peter

The Parish

The parish of South Hanningfield lies in southern Essex roughly 6 miles south of the county's administrative capital of Chelmsford. South Hanningfield sits about a mile west of the A130 road which links Chelmsford through to Canvey Island. South Hanningfield is a fairly dispersed village with most properties lying along the lane running to the village from nearby Rettendon, here there is also a small concentration at the hamlet of Coalhill whilst there is a further grouping at Brock Hill to the southwest. At the time of this transcript South Hanningfield would have been a typical arable farming parish, early gazetteers estimate that almost 2/3rds of the parish acreage was set to arable with a little pasture and woodland. Today much of the parish sits below the large Hanningfield Reservoir created in the 1950s as a storage reservoir and flooding the further hamlet of Peasdown, it is the 11th largest reservoir in England. Other modern developments have seen the A130 road upgraded to high-speed dual-carriageway highway. The stream which leaves the reservoir heads northwards to meet the River Chelmer to the east of Chelmsford, water than heads eastwards to the port of Maldon, the Blackwater Estuary & the North Sea. South Hanningfield is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, to its southwest nearby Downham sits on a low knoll at 73 metres the highest close ground. South Hanningfield parish covered just over 1,300 acres and would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday Book the 3 manors of East, West & South Hanningfield are recorded as a single return, collectively across their 4 owners they offered 21 ploughs backed by meadows, woodland and pasture and the 84 households were sufficient to place that collective into the top 20% of settlements by population.

The Church

St Peter's church stands at the northern end of the dead-end lane of Church Lane, a public road that becomes a private road but with access to the church. The nave is the oldest fabric of the church being from the cusp of the 12th into 13th century, the short Transitional era, despite Victorian restoration it retains two original windows from that period. Rather than a tower the church has a belfry with a splay-foot spire, this stands upon 4 mighty posts and is probably from the 14th century. The chancel to the east was thoroughly rebuilt in 1850, its brick eastern & southern walls standing in contrast with the remainder of the church. The work of 1850 was followed in 1884 by the thorough restoration of the nave, tower and southern porch. The church stands alongside the substantial Hall Farm, there is room to park either at the churchyard or at the private road signs, only a short walk. Other than a single inconvenient tree in the southeastern aspect there churchyard has few obstacles for the photographer.