England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stratfield Turgis All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Stratfield Turgis lies in the extreme northeast of Hampshire only a little over 2 miles south of the county's border with neighbouring Berkshire. Stratfield Turgis is located roughly 6 miles northeast of the town of Basingstoke and sits immediately west of the A33 road which links Basingstoke with the Berkshire town of Reading. Stratfield Turgis is one of 3 Stratfields together with Stratfield Saye, also in Hampshire, and Stratfield Mortimer across the county border in Berkshire. Stratfield Turgis is a rather dispersed community, former church and farms sit by the River Loddon whilst at Turgis Green on the A33 there is another small grouping otherwise the parish consists of dotted farms and cottages. Glancing at today's Ordnance Survey mapping of the area highlights the patches of green across the landscape, small forest pockets remaining of the once extensive Forest of Everley that remained into modern times given the poor soils of the area, interspersed between these managed woodlands sit small arable fields. Stratfield Turgis is drained northeastwards by the River Loddon which heads to meet the Thames to the east of Reading, the Thames in its turn heads east through the capital to the North Sea. Stratfield Turgis sits at 50 metres above the sea by the river with Turgis Green some 15 metres higher in gentle terrain, to the northeast sits the Wellington Monument, complete with huge column commemorating the military leader, stands at the local high point of 82 metres. Covering just under 1,100 acres Stratfield Turgis parish was a small one for its area, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. Stratfield Turgis in Domesday times was a tiny rural holding of one Hugh de Port offering merely 4 ploughs as meagre assets.

The Church

All Saints' church sits together with the large farm of Turgis Court close to the banks of the Loddon and some 400 metres west of the A33, the church was declared redundant in 1969 and is no longer used for worship. At its core the church is one from the 13th century, the mixture of chalk, flint & a pudding-stone makes up the jumble that is the earliest portion of the church, the nave. Built in an Early English Gothic style with lancets sitting below the Victorian bell-turret. On its northern face once stood a doorway of c1300 now partly blocked and converted into a window. To this medieval nave is attached a series of more modern pieces, the chancel, of brick, is Georgian and dateable to 1792 whilst the east window is a Victorian version of 1877. A typical Victorian restoration in 1899 saw the final flourish of the wooden bell-turret atop the western end in timber. Access to the former church is west off the A33 along Turgis Court Lane where Potters Lane turns west after the large farm, parking can be found at the apex of a right-angled bend by the former entrance. The churchyard is compact with thick hedging on most sides leaving little room to retreat from the church to gain full perspective, photography requires imaginative searching for adequate angles.