England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Widley Christ Church

The Parish

The parish of Widley lies in southeastern Hampshire roughly 5 miles east of the town of Fareham. Widley sits on the A3 road which links the port of Portsmouth through to London. Widley is a much changed place, changed in size and also in the name and location of its church. At the time of this transcript there was no significant village of Widley just a scatter of farms and cottages lying north of the chalk ridge that lies between it and Portsmouth. Alongside one of those farms sat its then church, St Mary Magdalene, which was sadly demolished in 1950 and replaced by Christ Church on the A3. Widley at the time of this transcript would have largely been a farming parish with arable the main method in use, a considerable acreage of woodland was also present which would have been exploited for such products. Today's Widley is pure suburbia with modern developments lying either side of the A3 and all some 3/4s of a mile northeast of the site of Fort Widley, one of the defensive array of such forts which line the chalk ridge. Widley is drained northeastwards by a stream which emerges and disappears sub-surface intermittently before joining the Hermitage Stream and turning south through Havant to reach the sea through Langstone Harbour.Widley is sited at between 50 and 70 metres above the sea the A3 rising steadily towards the chalk ridge, Fort Widley stands on the crest at 101 metres whilst further west heights to 115 metres are reached. Widley parish was often combined with that of Wymering to the extent that early register are intermixed, its own acreage was small covering only a little over 1,100 acres and supporting a population of close to 600 parishioners. Widley is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

Today's parish church is Christ Church, actually within the bounds of Portsdown rather than the original area of Widley. The original medieval parish church of St Mary Magdalene sat alongside Mill Farm on the lane leading due north from Fort Widley's eastern end. That medieval church was rebuilt in 1849 but demolished in 1950 and replaced by Christ Church which is more convenient for the locus of today's village. Completed in 1874 in a Neo-Norman style it is obviously not the venue for these marriages. A substantial lay-by alongside the busy A3 allows safe visiting, the churchyard. The churchyard is well-screened from the busy road by a thick band of trees, a theme which continues within leaving few angles left for the photographer.