England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stoke sub Hamdon St Mary

The Parish

The Church

As already noted St Mary's church sits within East Stoke set back from the main lane through this sub-village behind a row of prominent properties. Its cruciform layout immediately alerts to a possible early church and whilst most varieties of church architecture are found, Pevsner calls the church " an uncommonly varied assortment of parts & motifs", the earliest phases are from the Norman Romanesque period and as early as the 11th century. Indeed the tympanum of the northern doorway shows a style more typical of the even earlier Anglo-Saxon period of the early 11th century than of Romanesque styles. More obviously 11th and 12th century is the main body of the church with both nave & chancel indicative of this earliest fabric. The crossing tower, seated upon the southern end of the northern transept is slightly later, coming from the short Transitional period that ended the 12th century, Pevsner assigns a tentative date of before 1190. Lancet windows of the Early English Gothic period can be found alongside Norman equivalents as the 13th century saw the first of many later additions to the basic build, the southern transept is the largest piece directly attributable to the same period. A few windows were replaced in the Decorated style of the early 14th century but in the 15th, and Perpendicular in style, came the final flourishes to that tower, gargoyles and battlements being added in that century. At least 3 phases of restoration are noted by Pevsner, the 1st of 1862 restored the chancel arch, the 2nd of 1877 targeted the southern transept and the 3rd in 1914 the opposite transept and nave roof. An out-and-back lane heads to the churchyard and a broad verge outside allows ready parking, whence inside there are no substantial obstacles to worry the photographer.