England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Worle St Martin

The Parish

The parish of Worle lies in northern Somerset about 2 miles northeast of the seaside resort of Weston Super Mare. Worle sits just north of the B3440 road, one of the roads connecting Weston Super Mare with the M5 motorway. Once a separate and discrete village, as Weston Super Mare has expanded inland from the sea Worle has become subsumed within the urban area which almost fills all of the area between the M5 and the coast. Whilst historically there had been mining for both lead and calamine on the limestone outcrop that sits to Worle's west by the time of this transcript such activities had ceased and Worle would have primarily been a pastoral farming community. The River Banwell drains the parish northwards the short distance to the nearby Bristol Channel. Worle is sited at around 30 metres above the sea at the eastern end of a limestone outcrop which rises to just over 100 metres on nearby Worlebury Hill, the outcrop is believed to me a Carboniferous coral reef fossilised. Worle parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just under 1,900 acres it would have supported a population of just under 900 parishioners. In Domesday times Worle was a middling sort of place, held by Walter of Douai it could offer 13 ploughs along with the usual meadows & pastures.

The Church

St Martin's church sits on the southern side of Church Road and just over a quarter mile north of the B3440. Whilst the church has ancient origins, Pevsner cites the southern doorway as being Norman and Romanesque in style and dating from the early 12th century, the traces of such era are slim. The church was substantially rebuilt during the 14th and 15th centuries largely in the Perpendicular style. The standard layout of nave, chancel & western tower is augmented by a northern aisle. The western tower with its stair turret and spire are unusual and an interesting feature, the spire being matched by the equally unusual spirelet decorating the northern face. The usual Victorian restoration besides refreshing the building also added the northern chapel. Church Road is broad but parking is restricted by the close proximity of the school, at the eastern end of the site a space for a car or two sits in from of the angled pathway leading through the churchyard. The churchyard is largely open and free of photographic obstacles.