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

The Parish

The parish of Hope Mansell lies in the extreme southeast of Herefordshire forming an extensive part of the border with neighbouring Gloucestershire, the parish forms something of a peninsula into the latter county being bordered on three sides. Hope Mansell is located about 3 miles southeast of the market town of Ross on Wye and sits in a broad area devoid of major roads, the closest being the A40 which connects Ross on Wye through to Gloucester and which sits almost 2 1/2 miles north of Hope Mansell. There is very little to Hope Mansell, no proper village as such, merely a cluster of farms and cottages on a shelf of land overlooking the deeply incised valley of the Bailey Brook. Hope Mansell sits on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean in deeply incised countryside rich in limestone which led to a largely pastoral farming regime dominated by sheep rearing. The Bailey Brook is intermittent on the surface the porous limestone leading to underground drainage in places, the general trend is northwestwards towards the River Wye at Ross on Wye and thence back south to reach the Bristol Channel through Chepstow. Hope Mansell is sited at around 90 metres above the sea but land rises steeply to local heights of almost 280 metres to the east of the Bailey Brook's valley and within a couple of miles. Hope Mansell parish was on the small side for its area, covering just under 1,200 acres it would have supported just under 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Hope Mansell was a tiny place of just 3 ploughs and held by one William the son of Balderon.

The Church

St Michael's church sits on the eastern side of the lane which runs through the notional centre of Hope Mansell. The church has been heavily restored over the centuries with much modification from the original building. Traces of a Norman Romanesque origin are still to be found, Pevsner cites the inner archway of the northern doorway into the chancel, but these are slight. There was clearly a significant rebuild in the 13th century when early English Gothic was used, lancet windows, characteristic of this era, are widely used or reused as the chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century. The 17th century saw the addition of the southern porch but in Victorian times, in this case the late 1880s, much was altered by the restorers. A timber turret was demolished when the entire western end was rebuilt and today's double bellcote replaced it, at the same time most internal fittings were also replaced. The church sits in an elevated position banked by a local stone wall, there is sufficient space for a car or two on the verge by the gates. A short flight of steps leads up to the wooden gates and into the churchyard, sadly the church is rather hemmed in by trees making for a difficult building to adequately capture with severely restricted angles available.