England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Newnham St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Newnham lies in northeastern Hampshire roughly 5 miles east of the town of Basingstoke. Newnham sits a half mile north of the A30 road which links Basingstoke through to London and is a small crossroads village with properties gathered around a junction of lanes. Like most villages in this area Newnham would have been a farming village, mostly arable but with a little pastoral included in the mix. Modern developments have come to the area, the railway line connecting London with the port of Southampton through Basingstoke & Winchester passes very close to the village whilst the modern M3 motorway lies just beyond the neighbouring village of Nately Scures. Newnham is drained northwards by the Lyde River which very soon meets the Loddon, the latter keeps trending northwards to eventually meet the Thames to the east of Reading from there through the capital to the North Sea. Newnham is sited at around 90 metres above the sea in gently rolling terrain where land rises to the south of the M3 onto chalk downland with local high spots of around 110 to 130 metres. Newnham parish was one of Hampshire's smallest at slightly under 850 acres yet would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Newnham is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits towards the west of the village accessed from the northward running Tylney Lane by a signed dead-end lane, the sign proudly proclaims the church as founded in the 12th century. Despite that foundation date little remains of the church from that earl date because of a thorough rebuild of the 1840s. The 12th century claim comes from documentary evidence held by West Sherborne Priory where it is mentioned in c1130 and indeed Pevsner finds the chancel arch as being contemporary with that date, 12th century Norman Romanesque indeed. Both the western doorway to the nave and the southern doorway to the tower appear also to be of a similar date despite both being re-set by later work. The work of the 1840s, however, dominates in a style which Pevsner calls "hard Neo-Norman" and he was clearly unimpressed by the tower's topping describing it as "a crude sort of Rhenish helm". The lane leading to the church ends in a turning circle where one may park at the risk of blocking turners and outside a wooden fence and lychgate, from here a curving path leads to the church which stands in an area largely devoid of obstacles for the photographer.