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

The Parish

The parish of Rowner lies in the extreme south of the mainland portion of Hampshire quite close to its English Channel coast. Rowner is located about 3 miles northwest of the port and market town of Gosport. Rowner was a separate village at the time of this transcript but has now been absorbed into greater Gosport as that town has expanded and much trace of a "village" has been displaced by modern housing developments. Rowner sits on the B3334 road which connects Gosport with Titchfield. At the time of this transcript Rowner would have largely been an arable farming settlement nowadays it is a suburb. Rowner sits about 2 miles from Hampshire's English Channel coast and the small river Alver drains it. Rowner is sited at just 6 metres above the sea, the whole peninsula being less than 10 metres is fairly flat. Rowner parish was small even by the standards of a southern parish, it covered just over 1,200 acres and would have supported a population of just over 100 parishioners, small indeed. In Domesday times Rowner was held by one William Mauduit and could offer 4 ploughs as well as small meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits in what was once the village centre just south of the B3334 and on the northern side of Rowner Lane. This is a church which underwent a fundamental redesign during its lifetime. The origins of the church lie in the 13th century and in the early English Gothic style, a basic church of nave, chancel and northern aisle & chapel can be discerned from the current building. Following the restoration that aisle and chapel became the new nave & chancel. The church was thoroughly restored by the Victorians in 1874 to reach its present state albeit major work continued to as recent as 1950 when the old chancel (converted to an organ chamber) was restored and converted to a chapel. St Mary is set somewhat back from Rowner Lane behind tree-studded lawns and is accessed by a flagged pathway. The site is very cluttered with trees, an attraction but an inconvenience limiting the views available for photography.