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

The Parish

The parish of Kings Worthy lies in central Hampshire roughly 2 1/2 miles north of the city of Winchester. Kings Worthy sits on the A33road which links Winchester with Basingstoke. Kings Worthy is a much grown suburb of its larger neighbour, early maps show a settlement which was quite lines and following the route of today's B3047, the ancient Kings Way from London to Winchester. Properties were parallel with the nearby River Itchen from around the church northeastwards to a prominent fork with the southern arm leading to the subsidiary settlement of Abbot's Worthy. Today modern developments extend Kings Worthy northwards such that it almost fills the area between the railway line from London and the A33 and has become contiguous with neighbouring Headbourne Worthy. At the time of this transcript Kings Worthy was a farming parish with the vast majority of the parish acreage as set to arable. Kings Worthy is, today, surrounded by modern developments, the railway line from London to Southampton passing through to the west, the A34 from Winchester to Oxford is now a fast dual-carriageway highway and to the east lies the modern M3 motorway, all of these communications aiding Kings Worthy's status as a commuter town. Kings Worthy is drained southwards by the Itchen which passes through Winchester before making its way to Southampton and the English Channel through Southampton Water and the Solent. Kings Worthy is sited at around 40 metres above the sea at the parish church, however its northernmost developments rise onto downland at 70 metres and which continue rising northwards to 113 metres where the railway takes to a short tunnel. Kings Worthy parish was fairly typically sized for this area covering just over 2,100 acres which would have supported a population of around 350 parishioners. In Domesday times Kings Worthy was held directly by King William and was large enough to just make the top 20% of settlements by population with 44 households, it held an impressive set of assets; 23 ploughs backed by meadows & woodland and no fewer than 3 mills along the Itchen.

The Church

St Mary's church sits close to the River Itchen set south of the B3047 (London Road) in a little close (St Mary's Close), whilst its immediate surroundings are quite peaceful just beyond the churchyard lies the busy A33. St Mary is a much enlarged church with very little of the medieval remaining. The plain unbuttressed western tower appears to have the earliest fabric remaining it basal stages being 13th century Early English Gothic with higher stages added in the Transitional era c1300 and the parapet of the Perpendicular era and late 14th century. Parts of the western wall of the nave also appear to be genuine medieval but much was reused when the large extensions were added in Victorian & modern times. Work began to extend the church in 1849 when the new southern aisle and accompanying arcade was built. That arcade & the nave were extended in 1864 when the new chancel was built using many windows from the original Perpendicular chancel. The work of 1884 also included the polygonal vestry. Finally in 1999 the modern Church Centre was added completing this complicated church. St Mary's Close ends in a circular green with ample roadside parking outside the unfenced churchyard. Angles for the photographer are only complicated by the conglomeration of church and centre, few obstacles but a complex view.