England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chipstable All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Chipstable lies in western Somerset forming a stretch of the county's border with neoghbouring Devon. Chipstable lies some 9 miles northwest of the market town of Wellington and sits a little over a mile northwest of the B3227 road linking the Devon town of Bampton with Wiveliscombe & Milverton. Chipstable is a small and compact village sitting at the head of a deeply incised valley, steep slopes abound around it, a mere hamlet gathered around its church; the wider parish is dotted with farmsteads and isolated cottages. To its back sits Heydon Hill, an isolated lump of greywacke stone which was quarried for local building material and road repairs, the wider parish is intensely pastoral with tiny hedged fields hugging the steep slopes. A tributary of the River Tone drains the parish southeastwards into that river which heads through Taunton to meet the Parrett within the Somerset levels before reaching the Bristol Channel through the port of Bridgwater. Chipstable is sited at 250 metres above the sea but Heydon Hill meets 340 metres on its tumuli bedecked summit. Chipstable parish at 2,200 acres was fairly typically sized for its area, that acreage supporting around 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Chipstable was a holding of Muchelney Abbey and a small rural community at that, its assets of just 6 ploughs backed by meadows, pastures and woodland being typical of such small rural manors.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of its small community accessed along the dead-end lane of Newhouse Lane. Whilst the Perpendicular styled western town would be familiar to the participants of these marriages the main body would not. Early gazetteers report that the main body was "in a very dilapidated state, through age" and was pulled down and completely rebuilt in 1869. Thus the tower remains as the only genuinely medieval piece from the 15th century, it is 3-stage with battlements and 1 polygonal stair-turret at its southeastern corner. The main body, in a Geometrical style, has a pair of capitals from the original church but otherwise is typical Victorian work. Newhouse Lane is narrow but well-used for parking outside the wooden gates that grant entry to a churchyard devoid of significant obstacles for the photographer.