England
& Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index |
The ParishThe parish of Hopton Castle lies in the extreme southwest of Shropshire only a short distance from its border with both neighbouring Herefordshire (indeed it adjoins the area of the Herefordshire parish of Leintwardine which lies within Shropshire) and also Wales in the form of Radnorshire. Hopton Castle is located about 6 miles northeast of the Radnorshire market town of Knighton. Hopton Castle sits about a mile west of the B4385 which connects Bishop's castle with Clungunford. There is very little to Hopton Castle, it sits in a deep valley with the stream crisscrossing the road, with just a few properties lining the lane which runs west from the B4385 into hill country. Despite its remoteness and low population Hopton Castle has a long history, the castle from which it gets its name, dating from c1300, was part of the Marcher Lords lands defending the western border of England against the marauding Welsh across nearby Offa's Dyke. The castle, held by the King's men during the English Civil War eventually surrendered to Parliamentary forces who unleashed a massacre of the inhabitants. The area was a mixture of arable & pastoral farming at the time of this transcript, barley & turnips the mainstays albeit at least a third of the parish was described as waste. The village stream drains eastwards to reach the nearby River Clun and thence the Teme before joining the Severn to the south of Worcester and the Bristol Channel through the Severn Estuary. Hopton Castle is sited at 160 metres above the sea, in its valley in deeply incised landscapes local heights rise to over 440 metres on Black Hill just 3 miles west. Hopton Castle parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 2,500 acres it would have supported a population of barely 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Hopton Castle was virtually nonexistent, held by one Picot of Sai (who acquired the holding from the wonderfully named Edric the Wild) it had no discernible assets but was assessed as capable of holding 4 ploughs. |
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Register No | Covering Dates | Deposited With | Register Style | Quality Standard | Comments |
1 | 19th May 1755 - 21st April 1812 | Shropshire Archives - Reference - FP/139/A/3/1 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered combined Banns & Marriage register with 3 entries per page | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
2 | 19th August 1813 - 9th May 1837 | Shropshire Archives - Reference - FP/139/A/3/2 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
Clunbury
St Swithin
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Clunbury
St Swithin
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Clungunford
St Cuthbert
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Clun St
George
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Clungunford
St Cuthbert
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Bucknell
St Mary
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Bucknell
St Mary
Bedstone St Mary |
Leintwardine
St Mary Magdalene, Herefordshire
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1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts