England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chalton St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Chalton is located in eastern Hampshire, indeed it forms part of the border with neighbouring Sussex. Chalton is sited on the Hampshire Downs about 6 miles north of the market town of Havant. The village is compact and sited around its triangular village green at a crossroads of lanes, around a mile east of the busy A3 road which links London to Portsmouth. The area is rolling chalk downland and would have been dominated by sheep grazing at the time of this transcript, the soil being rather too thin for arable crops; today heavier machinery means arable now dominates the landscape. The village is located in a shallow valley between two notable hills, Windmill Hill to the west tops out at 193 metres above sea level and Chalton Down to the southeast at 145 metres; Chalton, itself stands at around 90 metres above sea level. Given the porous soil there is little surface drainage, what water there is making its way southwards to enter Chichester Harbour. The parish was of a typical size for the area, but the chapelry of Idsworth (with its own page) took up almost half of the area and the majority of the population. Chalton itself supported around 260 parishioners. In Domesday times (when Idsworth was not separately assessed) the parish supported an impressive 37 ploughs as well as meadows and woodland, a wealthy place indeed.

The Church

St Michael's church is located at the eastern end of the village green opposite to the Red Lion pub. The earliest work is that of the chancel which is dated to the 13th century. The nave and southern chapel are a little later spanning the cusp of the 13th and 14th centuries. The tower was augmented by battlements in Victorian times and, of course, this was part of a more extensive renovation and modification. The building clearly impressed Pevsner who describes it as "small but stately" and waxes almost lyrical over one chancel window. The church is accessed along the southern edge of the green and the graveyard entered through an a lych gate. The site is quite hemmed in with tall trees and this does create issues for adequate photography in the summer months.