England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Felton St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Felton lies in the northern portion of central Herefordshire roughly 8 miles northeast of the county town of Hereford. Felton sits about a half mile east of the A417 road, a linking road which runs from just west of Ledbury through to the A49 to the south of Leominster. Felton is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet with a few farms and cottages lying along a lane which parallels the main road to its west, a larger farm of Felton Court sits apart to the southwest. Like many such small parishes in Herefordshire it is the county's traditional beef cattle that dominate the economy with most farms dedicated to pastoral farming and cattle the main animal present. Felton is drained southwestwards by a tributary of the Little Lugg River which gathers numerous such small streams together before meeting its larger namesake the Lugg to the north of Hereford, the latter soon joins the Wye for a long journey to the sea arriving through the port of Chepstow. Felton is sited at around 90 metres above the sea in gently rolling terrain where undramatic small hills rise to local high spots such as Cheat Hill at 123 metres to Felton's west. Felton parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering close to 1,800 acres it would have supported a population of around 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Felton was equally small and rural, held by the Canons of Hereford it could muster merely 4 ploughs, its sole assets for just 7 households.

The Church

St Michael's church sits to the north of the group of properties along the lane so described, adjacent to Felton House the former rectory of 1853. Sadly this church, too, is of 1853, obviously built as a contemporaneous pair together with the house, and therefore not the venue for these marriages but a replacement for a medieval predecessor. Early gazetteers describe the former church as "a very ancient structure" so obviously from 12th or 13th century and sadly missed. Today's church is supposedly built upon the foundations of that former church and consists of the basic nave & chancel together with a battlemented western tower all in the local red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Despite its relatively recent build the church did, still, receive a Victorian restoration, in this case of 1891 in which the strange-looking pyramidal spire (if it could be called such) was added and the southern porch rebuilt. The lane passing the church is rather narrow and rough looking stones are placed to discourage verge-parking, so parking is tricky. A shady pathway, sharing it entry with Felton House leads to the churchyard which is a little compact and tree-bordered rendering a few problems in acquiring the landscape view of the full structure.