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

The Parish

The parish of South Hayling lies in the extreme southeast of mainland Hampshire forming an extensive stretch of the county's coastline with the English Channel. South Hayling is one of two parishes covering the former island, a bridge on the A3023 now crosses the channel, of Hayling Island and sits at the southern end of the A3023 which connects the island with Havant. South Hayling, once a small and discrete settlement on an isolated and remote coastline is now a substantial development with holiday facilities covering the entire southern end of the island from Langstone to Chichester Harbours. Prior to the 20th century Hayling Island was reminiscent of the more isolated parts of the Essex coastline, a windswept flat landscape of fields and grazing marshes with the land merging into a maze of tidal mudflats. In that landscape a varied economy flourished, arable and pastoral farming, salt production using evaporation, fish and shellfish together with wildfowling and reed harvesting. Today South Hayling earns its living from the tourist trade with its broad sandy beaches facing towards the Isle of Wight popular with day & short stay trippers. Growth in its tourist trade had been advanced by the construction of a branch railway line from Havant but this was a victim of the 1963 cuts and is today dismantled and a popular recreational path. As a coastal settlement numerous, and largely man-made, watercourses drain the parish into the harbours on either side. South Hayling is sited at just 2 metres above the sea, the whole island being at or close to that mark. The parish covers almost 2/3rds of Hayling Island and is extensive, however, almost 1/3rd of the parish acreage is the mud-flats of Langstone Harbour; covering close to 4,900 acres the parish supported a population of close to 650 parishioners. In Domesday times the island was recorded as two manors, the island manor and Earl Roger of Shrewsbury's manor of Eastoke, the latter offering 4 ploughs was entirely within South Hayling whilst it shared the larger holding with North Hayling but having the greater proportion of the assets. For the wider island King William and the Bishop of Winchester had small holdings whilst the majority was in the hands of Jumieges Abbey, this latter holding being roughly equivalent to South Hayling and offered an impressive 19 ploughs, 2 mills and a salthouse in addition to the usual meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits towards the northern edge of South Hayling and almost a mile from the sea. The church is thought to have been built at the instigation of the monks of Jumieges Abbey and was largely constructed over a period of several deacdes during the middle of the 13th century. The chancel of the church is a rare example of a relatively untouched Early English Gothic piece, lit by lancet windows characteristic of that style and not subject to later modification. The nave is also from this period but decay necessitated the replacement of the internal piers in 1902. The curious short central tower is unusual in only rising a foot or so above the nave roof being topped by a shingled splay-foot spire. Modern work on the church is mostly limited to the interior, the roofs are 17th century work whilst the flooring was replaced and the walls returned to medieval state in the 20th century. The church stands on the western side of Church Road, the former route of the A3023 before it was moved westwards, and has two substantial parking bays outside the churchyard. Slatted fencing back by a hedge surrounds and a lychgate grants entry, there are rather too many close trees for this to be a simple project to photograph, especially on a sunny day as most of the southern aspect is unavailable.