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

The Parish

The parish of Dunkerton lies in northeastern Somerset roughly 5 miles southwest of the city of Bath. Dunkerton is located immediately west of the A367 road which links Bath with Shepton Mallet. Today's Dunkerton is a sahadow of its former self, a small village strung out along the valley of the Cam Brook with most properties gathered around a junction of lanes north of the brook and church. At the time of this transcript Dunkerton was a small mining community, part of the Somerset coal-field and supporting a substantial population. The wider parish, and it was relatively small, was largely farmed with almost equal parts arable and pastoral. The modern developments which served the mines of this area around Clutton have largely disappeared, a railway line connecting the mines into Bath having closed and been largely dismantled. Today there is little evidence beyond the occasional overgrown spoil heap of the area's industrial past. Dunkerton is drained eastwards by the Cam Brook which joins the Wellow Brook and then the Avon in swift succession, the Avon passes through both Bath and Bristol to reach the outer Bristol Channel under its iconic bridge. Dunkerton is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in an incised valley where steep hillsides rise either side to a local high spot of 173 metres to the west of nearby Tunley As already noted Dunkerton parish was one of the smaller in its county, covering just under 1,200 acres it would have nevertheless have supported a population, now largely gone, of around 800 parishioners. In Domesday times Dunkerton was also a large rural settlement held by a Saxon survivor Turstin son of Rolf it could muster 8 ploughs, the usual meadows & pasture and had a mill powered by the Cam Brook.

The Church

All Saints' church stands south of the Cam Brook accompanied by a cottage or two but away from the main area of properties. Whilst the church retains quoins from the 12 or 13th century nothing else of that early time survives in the main fabric of the church. Indeed such is the scale of later work that Pevsner declines to date the main nave and chancel, the National Heritage List is more forthcoming granting the main body to  14th century origin. The Perpendicular styling of that late 14th or early 15th century is genuinely seen in the western tower of 3 stages with diagonal buttresses, here Pevsner assigns the basal stages to the late 14th century adding that the belfry complete with 2-light openings is later and probably 15th century. The main reason for all of the change was occasioned by a fire in Victorian times which resulted in a major rebuild completed in 1859, besides restoring the church to good use that rebuild added a southern porch. From the main crossroads of the village Church Road heads south across the Cam Brook and ends at the church after just a few hundred yards, take care to park before it narrows too much to be able to turn around. There are a couple of mature conifers decorating the western area of the churchyard but they do not unduly interfere with the favoured aspects.