England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Barnes St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Barnes lies in the extreme north of Surrey forming a stretch of the county's border, here formed by the River Thames, with neighbouring Middlesex. Barnes is located roughly 5 miles west of the City of London and sits, within a meander of the Thames, on the A306 road, a linking road joining Hammersmith with the A3 (London to Portsmouth) road. Barnes is a much grown place, early maps show the main cluster of the village around the station, contiguous with neighbouring Mortlake, with an eastward running tail as far as the parish church. The A306 was also lined with properties almost to Hammersmith Bridge but either side was totally farmland. To the southeast lay Barnes Common almost 200 acres of unproductive land used for grazing mainly pigs and exploited for besoms etc. Much of the farming area was set to market gardening serving the city to the east. Barnes, as a Thames-side settlement, would also have taken part in the movement of goods and people along this thoroughfare, trips to Richmond from the capital being particularly popular. Today Barnes is an integral part of Greater London, the farmland built over and the settlement merely one of the many "villages" that make up the sprawling capital. The only breach in the unrelenting urban development which spreads both sides of the Thames to the twin cities of Westminster & London is the green lung of the London Wetland Centre, a wildlife refuge within the sea of housing, retail and industry. Railways have developed across Barnes parish both to Richmond and crossing the Thames to Brentford & Houslow, Barnes has a station with many commuters headed daily to the businesses of the City of London. The Thames loops around Barnes before heading eastwards through the capital and onward to the North Sea through its estuary. Barnes is sited entirely below the 10 metre contour with much of the parish barely 1 metre above the sea, land rises southwards gently to reach almost 50 metres in the southern reaches of Richmond Park. Barnes was a small parish of just 936 acres, it had a growing population reaching almost 1,500 parishioners by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded is more typical of an average population during the period of closer to 700. In Domesday times Barnes was held by the Canons of St Paul and was a minor rural manor offering just 5 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the northern side of Church Road, today's A3003 and about a half mile east of the former village centre. St Mary suffered a disastrous fire in 1978 which almost totally gutted the church, it has risen phoenix-like from the ashes thanks to an almost complete rebuild since that terrible event. Whilst most of the medieval elements were lost to the fire some has been incorporated into the resurrected church, indeed one piece of serendipitous fortune has revealed a previously unknown blocked doorway from the 12th century Norman period pushing back the origins much earlier than previously believed. Three 13th century lancet windows survived in the eastern wall from the Early English Gothic period. The main survival, however, was the 16th or 17th century brick tower complete with a southern stair turret. The rebuild was slightly controversial in that while it preserved the southern aspects of the church, a whole new modern northern wing was constructed to hold the altar and which projects from the original church. Given the urban setting this is a church to visit on foot using the railway or a local car park, as most side-streets near the church are reserved parking for residents. This is, however, a churchyard which will seriously challenge the photographer as the church sits within a veritable forest of trees with very few sight-lines available, the entire north and west are totally non-viable with only views from the southeast anything like adequate.