England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hawkley St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Hawkley lies in eastern Hampshire rather close to its border with neighbouring Sussex. Hawkley is located roughly 5 miles north of the market town of Petersfield and sits just under 2 miles west of the A3 road which links London with Portsmouth. Hawkley is a small and compact hilltop village most properties lying around a triangle of lane focussed upon the church and an extensive village green. Hawkley sits upon slightly more fertile ground than eastwards into The Weald, consequently its farming was primarily arable with cereals, root crops and fallow following in annual rotations. Hawkley is drained eastwards by the Oakshott Stream renamed as Batt's Brook before it meets the River Rother, the latter takes a southerly course to Petersfield before turning determinedly eastwards to meet the Arun west of Pulborough before cutting through the chalk barrier of the South Downs to reach the English Channel at Littlehampton. Whilst Hawkley sits on a shelf at 140 metres above the sea land rises into the forerunners of the true chalk downs further northwest reaching 220 metres within a couple of miles. Hawkley parish was toward the smaller end of the scale for Hampshire parishes, covering only a little over 1,300 acres it supported a population of close to 300 parishioners. In common with much of The Weald to the east Hawkley is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church dominates the village green with only post and rail fencing to separate the churchyard from the green. Whilst the church appears to be time-worn and early it is in fact not the venue for these marriages having been built in 1864-5 to replace a tiny Norman chapel-of-ease. The church may be new but its architecture throws back to the earliest stone church-building times being in Norman style in homage to its predecessor. That Norman style, however, is not in the English tradition rather being more in the Continental Romanesque tradition. Indeed its stand-out feature, the plain western tower reflects what Pevsner terms as Rhenish Romanesque.  The interior too reflects continental traditions mixed with the more familiar Anglo-Norman being richly decorated with much luxuriant carving. The village green provides ample opportunity for safe parking, the main entrance, an elaborate lychgate sits opposite the village's phone & post box. Trees do somewhat impede the wetter views of the tower but other favoured aspects are readily available for the photographer.