England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Granston St Catherine

The Parish

The parish of Granston sits in the west of Pembrokeshire forming a short stretch of the county's northern Irish Sea coastline. Granston is located around 5 miles southwest of the port of Fishguard and sits just over a mile northwest of the A487 road which connects Fishguard with St Davids. There is very little to Granston, no more than a collection of farms and cottages on a hilltop above the twin beaches of Aber Bach & Aber Mawr. A farming community like so many with pastoral farming in the dominance. Strangely Granston has featured in significant developments, in the late 1840s the bay was envisaged as the port for ferries to Ireland by no less than Brunel and work began before being abandoned, furthermore in 1883 the bay became the arrival point for the under-sea telegraph cable from Ireland. Today the main attraction of the parish is the coastline with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Trail passing through the parish. As a coastal parish small streams flow the short distance into the bay to drain the parish. Granston hamlet is sited at around 80 metres above that coast whilst land continues to rise to the northeast topping out at 151 on nearby Rhos y Clegryn. Granston parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. Like most of Wales Granston is not mentioned in Domesday Book which does not cover this area.

The Church

St Catherine's church sits on the southern side of the lane descending from the A487 through the hamlet accompanied by a couple of farms. Sadly the medieval church in which these events occurred was extensively rebuilt in the 1870s and would not be the venue of these marriages. Today's church is a simple nave & slightly lower chancel augmented by noth a porch and a short transept to the north and topped by a bellcote at the western end. The church uses tracery of a Decorated style from the early 14th century and it is speculated that this may have been the period of the previous incarnation. The church was clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his description is short, covering a mere 3 lines of text. The narrow lane leading past the church is heavily wooded obscuring views of the church from the road, a blue sign marks the start of a gravel track rising to the site and permits a single car to get off-lane. Once within the churchyard there are no obstacles for the photographer.