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

The Parish

The parish of Farmborough lies in northern Somerset roughly 7 miles southwest of the city of Bath. Farmborough stands on and mostly south of the A39 road which links Bath with Wells. Farmborough has a triangular shape, the course of the A39 forming one side whilst everything else is contained within a dense network of lanes lying south of that road. The centre of the village is the line of the Conygre Brook whilst properties rise gently up the valley sides either side from that stream. Early gazetteers describe the parish as mainly pastoral, that may well be true but the parish also sat on the edges of the small Somerset coal-field and many men would have tramped to nearby Clutton to work in those mines. Farmborough is drained eastwards by the Conygre Brook which meets other similar streams before turning northwards to reach the Avon on the very western edges of the urban fringe of Bath, the Avon, of course, eventually meets the Bristol Channel after passing below the Avon Gorge Bridge. Farmborough sits in hilly country north of the Mendips, the village sits at between 110 and 120 metres above the sea, to its south looms The Sleight topping out at 197 metres whilst westward both Blackberry and Barrow Hills reach 207 metres in strongly rolling countryside. Farmborough parish was fairly typically sized for its area covering just under 1,500 acres which would have supported a population quoted in gazetteers as around 1,150 parishioners, it must be said, however, that the volume of marriages recorded is much lower than would be predicted by a population of that size and indicative of only 600 or so. Domesday Farmborough was held by Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances and was a typical rural farming settlement offering just 6 ploughs backed by meadows and pastures.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of the village just south of the brook and accessed by the dead-end lane of Church Lane from the main street. Sadly there is not very much of this church that would be recognisable to the participants of the earlier marriages in this transcript, the church received much change in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pevsner struggles to find medieval fabric that is not in the western tower, the nave has a few fragments built into its southern wall but that would appear to be all. The western tower is medieval from the later stages, the Perpendicular era, and comes complete with the frequent decoration found in that style namely battlements and pinnacles. The 18th century saw the nave southern wall rebuilt and odd elongated 2-light windows inserted whilst the chancel was completely rebuilt later in that century between 1793 & 1794. Further changes came during a comprehensive restoration of 1869 at which time the porch and the northern aisle were acquired, the later in a Geometric style. Church Lane is rather narrow so its enlargement at the churchyard into a substantial parking and turning area is very welcome and makes for a relaxed visit. The churchyard is a large oblong with an extensive graveyard to the south giving uninterrupted view from all of the favoured aspects.