England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hope Bagot St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Hope Bagot lies in the extreme south of Shropshire not too far from its 3-counties meet with both Herefordshire & Worcestershire. Hope Bagot lies roughly 6 miles east of the town of Ludlow and about 2 miles south of the A4117 road which links Ludlow with Cleobury Mortimer. Hope Bagot is a tiny place set into a cwm within the southern flanks of Clee Hill with most properties lying south of its church along Hope Bagot Lane. There were two main threads to Hope Bagot's economy, pastoral farming and extraction of the local stone which had a reputation for making good quality grindstones. Various brooks, the Coity, Stoke & Ledwyche brooks drain the parish westwards and then south eventually meeting the River Teme to the west of Ledbury Wells, the Teme heads east to the Severn and the latter south to the Bristol Channel. Hope Bagot is sited at around 180 metres already high upon the Clee Hills which rise northeastwards to 379 metres within a mile or so, to the north Titterstone Clee Hill forms the area's highest ground topping out at 533 metres and attracting hikers from all sides. Hope Bagot parish was tiny, one of the smallest in its county at only 400 acres and supporting between 50 & 100 parishioners. Hope Bagot is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St John's church stands on the western side of Hope Bagot Lane at the northern end of the short run of properties that make up this hamlet. Like many such small isolated churches it had ancient fabric left untouched by later medieval alterations to a great degree, Pevsner terms it "a little Norman church prettily set on the hillside". The northern side of the building together with its southern doorway are untouched 12th century Norman Romanesque remarkably preserved across those centuries. The single small windows in both nave and chancel being typical of such early buildings. A few windows were replaced in the 14th century and the western tower with its pyramidal top, which Pevsner felt unable to accurately date,is also later in the medieval period. Restoration did arrive but not until the 20th century when such intervention was more enlightened, it came in 1911 and was tactful. Parking near the church is an issue with the extremely narrow lane but a  widening at a junction might allow a temporary visit acceptable. A short flight of steps leads to the lychgate granting entry to a churchyard which has no significant obstacles for the photographer.