England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hale St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Hale lies in the extreme west of Hampshire forming part of the border with the neighbouring county of Wiltshire. Hale is located about 8 miles north of the market town of Ringwood and sits on the northern edge of the former hunting forest of The New Forest. Hale sits about a half mile west of the B3080 road, one of a number of minor B roads crossing the Forest in this case from the large Wiltshire village of Downton towards the A31 & M27. Hale is an estate village, dominated by the parkland of Hale Park home to the Penruddock family for many years. A concentration of property around the northeastern end of the estate constitutes Hale whilst the settlement of North Charford on the B road adds further property. Like many estate parishes the economy would have been dominated by the affairs of the local landholders, a mixed farming regime was in place due to the poor soils of the New Forest, more profitable grazing was found along the watermeadows of the Hampshire Avon at the western edge of the parish. A small stream, much landscaped, drains the parish through the park to the nearby Avon and thence southwards to reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Hale is sited at between 50 and 110 metres above the sea, the estate rising on the slopes of the Avon's valley, land outwith the valley is at or close to the latter height for many miles. Hale parish was fairly typically sized for its county, covering just under 1,700 acres it would have supported a population of just over 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Hale was not the dominant settlement, that being North Charford under which it was recorded, shared between Edward of Salisbury and one Alwy it could offer just 4 ploughs, the usual meadows & woodland but did possess 2 mills.

The Church

St Mary's church lies within Hale Park and sits at the western, Avon, end of the estate well over a mile from the village of Hale. To say that St Mary is an unusual church is to understate that fact. All trace of the mediaeval has been swept away by the expense of the Penruddock family to create what would have been a showpiece to compliment their elaborate park. The first church on this site was erected in the middle of the 16th century, in itself a strange turbulent time to build a church given Henry VIII's troubles. That church was replaced in 1631 incorporating ideas by the famous landscape manager, Inigo Jones. The western facade of the building dates from that 1631 building. The entire eastern portion of the church was again rebuilt in 1717 whereby the chancel was lengthened and transepts added. Further restorations, mainly interior to the church, followed in the 1890s to arrive at today's church. Access to the church is via the narrow lane (Moor Lane) which parallels the course of the Avon on the western edge of the estate, here a broken down kissing gate with a large blue sign leads to a tarred pathway rising through trees to the site. As you emerge from the trees the church sits to the south, right, of that tarred pathway, the churchyard has few obstructions to photography.