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

The Parish

The parish of North Marden lies in the extreme west of Sussex not too far from the county's border with neighbouring Hampshire. North Marden is located roughly 7 miles southeast of the town of Petersfield and stands on and mostly south of the B2141 road which links Petersfield with Chichester. North Marden is one of 3 tiny parishes which sit in one of the remotest parts of the South Downs amongst scenery which Pevsner describes as "majestic and utterly unspoilt". North Marden is a tiny place with a tiny population and consists mostly of a set of farms and the parish church, a small presence on the B2141 but mostly on the lane leading to East Marden. North Marden is a farming parish, early gazetteers estimate that there were roughly equal proportions of land set to arable with the remainder downland pastures grazed by sheep. North Marden sits on porous chalk so there is no surface drainage until Stoughton some distance to the south where a spring arises and flows into the River Ems, the latter soon reaches Chichester Harbour and the English Channel. North Marden is sited at around 130 metres above the sea but chalk downs rise northwards culminating at Harting Down which reaches 242 metres and is crested by the South Downs Way National Trail. North Marden was one of the smallest parish in extent in its county covering only 700 acres and supporting merely 25 parishioners. North Marden is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church sits south of the B2141 accessed by a dead-end track which it shares as access to a farm. Like many small and isolated churches it has fabric back to the earliest times of stone-built churches. It consists solely of a single room with an apsidal eastern end, it is believed to one of only 4 such structures in England with others in Hampshire, Wiltshire & Essex. Almost all of the fabric dates from the 12th century with a more precise date given to the southern doorway which is estimated as dating from c1130-1140. All is in the Norman Romanesque style and according to Pevsner's eye resembles those churches on the continent. The piscina is a later addition of the 13th century and many windows are replacement which maintain the original styling keeping the building in context. After passing through the farm the lane widens to a broad space which is often dotted with farming paraphernalia but offers plenty of parking space. The church is almost masked by trees but once within there are no obstacles for the photographer.