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

The Parish

The parish of Brockenhurst lies in southwestern Hampshire roughly 4 miles north of the port of Lymington. Brockenhurst sits on the A337 road which connects Lymington through to the M27 motorway. Brockenhurst sits in the heart of the New Forest, the ancient Norman hunting forest that dominates this area of the county, it pre-existed that status being a Saxon "hurst", a village set within a clearing within woodland. At the time of this transcript Brockenhurst was a small crossroads settlement with most properties set around the junction of the A337 with the B-road arriving from the east. With the arrival of the railway in 1847 development began in earnest west of the original village but most of the substantial village we see today came in the last decade of the 19th and in the 20th century. The New Forest has a unique system allowing villagers to exploit the forest resources, introduced by the Normans, "commoner" utilised their forest privileges to practice a mixed system of both cropping and grazing livestock on the "lawns" of the forest, in addition the right of pannage, allowing pigs to feed on the heavy acorn crop, enabled an economy based upon low-intensity farming. The forest was exploited too for its timber supplying the yards of Lymington & Beaulieu. Today the economy is largely overlain by the tourism that the attractive area supports, Brockenhurst is one of the main bases for exploring, on foot or horseback, the Forest. Modern developments in the form of the railway linking Southampton through to Bournemouth pass through granting Brockenhurst a station. Brockenhurst is drained southwards by the Lymington River which makes the short journey to The Solent and the English Channel. Brockenhurst is sited at around 20 metres above the sea in gently undulating terrain, Holm Hill to its west being the local high spot at 57 metres. Brockenhurst parish covered just under 2,900 acres and wood have supported a population of close to 900 parishioners. Two manors covered the area of the parish in Domesday times, that of Brookley being a holding of the King is a token entry lacking detail, Brockenhurst, itself, was a holding retained by the Saxon lord that held it prior to the conquest, it had passed to "Small" Aelfric from his father, also Aelfric, and held 3 ploughs and the woodland.

The Church

St Nicholas' church stands a few hundred yards southeast of the centre of the villages accessed along Church Lane. The church is recorded in the Domesday entry and preserves masonry from the earliest period of stone-built churches, the walls of the nave show herringbone masonry possibly of pre-Conquest origins, its main structure is, however, 12th century Norman Romanesque which Pevsner dates to the late 12th century. To its east the chancel is of the 13th century Early English Gothic period showing some features which are more typical of the early 14th century style of the Decorated so probably late 13th century. From more later times is the brick western tower which is documented as having been built between 1758 & 1763, the tower has an oddly sat small spire with a domed base which is covered by "mathematical tiles", tiles laid on the exterior of timber-framed buildings as an alternative to brickwork, which their appearance closely resembles. 19th century Georgian work saw the addition of the northern aisle in 1832, this was followed by a light Victorian restoration of 1896 which did not add to the structure merely refreshing the church. To the south of the churchyard there is an extensive gravelled car park allowing a relaxed visit, the churchyard is very compact and carved from thicj forest which hugs all but the southern aspect leaving avery limited set of viewpoints for the photographer.