England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Cricket St Thomas

The Parish

The parish of Cricket St Thomas lies in the extreme south of Somerset with only the area of Winsham parish separating it from neighbouring Dorset. Cricket St Thomas is located about 3 miles east of the market town of Chard and sits a half mile south of the A39 road which links Chard with Crewkerne. Cricket St Thomas is an estate village which has changed markedly over the years, at the time of this transcript a distinct small hamlet existed but in 1830 this was swept away entirely to create the parkland estate of Cricket House. That house was the home of Admiral Alexander Hood, Viscount Bridport, and was built in two phases 1786-8 followed by 1801-4. Today that estate has become an upmarket hotel, golf course and visitor attraction, a wedding venue and widely used in film shoots, notably for the early sitcom of "To the Manor Born". Like most estate villages the economy would have been dictated by the needs of the estate with pastoral farming to the fore. Cricket St Thomas is drained southwards by a small tributary of the River Axe which is soon joined, the latter continues largely south west to reach the English Channel to the east of Seaton. Cricket St Thomas estate occupies a steeply sided valley with the pond-ed stream at 120 metres whilst the northern edges rise to almost 210 metres at the A30, land rises still higher between Cricket St Thomas and Crewkerne with 238 metres reached on St Rayn Hill. There are various estimates of the acreage of Cricket St Thomas parish on-line, most agree it was less than 1,000 acres and would have supported merely between 50 & 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Cricket St Thomas was a much larger place, held by Count Robert of Mortain it could muster 6 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland and also held a mill.

The Church

St Thomas' church sits within the estate to the east of Cricket House now a hotel. Despite the florid rebuild of 1820 which accompanied the creation of the parkland within which it sits, there is still enough remaining to identify the Perpendicular church upon which these Georgian and Victorian flourishes were overlaid. The church's origins date back to the late 14th century during the great-church building era. The changes wrought in the work of 1820 and finally in 1868 have created almost a folly of a church complete with its curious cross-gabled bell-turret topped by a little spike which greets you as you approach from the hotel's car park along a typical processional way. The church is perhaps more renowned for its monuments to both the Viscounts Bridport but also to relatives of Nelson. Parking should be at the spacious hotel car park, signed from the A30, and the church approached on foot, there are no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer with all aspects clear.