England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Downton St Giles

The Parish

The parish of Downton lies in the northwest of Herefordshire, separated by mere yards of the Shropshire border by Burrington parish it is also close to the border with Wales in the form of Radnorshire. Downton is located roughly 4 miles west of the Shropshire town of Ludlow and sits a couple of miles south of the A4113 road which leads from Ludlow through Leintwardine to Knighton. Downton parish is an estate parish with the local landscape highly modified from that pertaining during the medieval period. The small village of Downton on the Rock was once home to the ancient parish church but that has been swept away in a total re-landscaping of the whole area by the owners of Downton "Castle". The estate, purchased by the Knight family in 1727, built today's "Castle" in an Italianate style on a bluff high above the River Teme which lies in a deeply incised valley. The whole area, however, is one extensive parkland with no distinct village. At the time of this transcript pastoral farming would have been the mainstay of the estate, today with the advent of heavy machinery there is more of an arable element to the landscape. The Teme drains the parish eastwards, passing through Ludlow, and eventually reaching the Severn and through the latter to the Bristol Channel. Downton is sited at between 130 & 170 metres above the sea with land rising northwestwards to Downton Common which tops out at 293 metres high above Leintwardine. In a county with many small parishes Downton was one of these, covering just under 1,200 acres it would have supported close to 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Downton was a border holding, a manor held by Ralph de Mortimer and offering just a pair of ploughs, a small wood and a fishery.

The Church

The ancient medieval church of St Giles sits in ruins at Downton on the Rock, it was largely Norman Romanesque and 12th century in its fabric, today's St Files sits some 3/4 of a mile northwest just off the public road on the northern side of the access drive to Downton Castle. The present St Giles was built in the early 1860s so it would have been its predecessor that saw these marriages. Built in a faux-Early English Gothic style in a local greyish stone it is a simple structure augmented by an elaborate and rather tall northwestern tower. Parking is best found near to the driveway entrance and the church best approached on foot, the small enclosing churchyard does not permit adequate distance for good imagery so the better versions are from outside, the parkland setting being conducive to this.