England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wisborough Green St Peter ad Vincula

The Parish

The parish of Wisborough Green lies in the extreme north of Sussex forming a length of the county's border with neighbouring Surrey. Wisborough Green is located roughly 10 miles southwest of the market town of Horsham and sits on and mostly north of the A272 road which links Billinghurst with Petworth & Midhurst. Wisborough Green has a run of properties lining the A272 but also stretches in a roughly triangular area northwards from that road. At one time Wisborough Green had designs on becoming a small market town with biannual fairs held for livestock and horses but the close proximity of Billinghurst eventually suppressed that activity. Wealden soils are often notoriously infertile but hose of Wisborough Green were sufficient for roughly 50% of the pariah acreage to be set to arable nevertheless almost 1/3rd of the parish acreage is described as waste or woodland in early gazetteers and woodland still features prominently, especially southwest of the village, in the area; it would have been managed for woodland products by coppicing. Modern developments have come to the area but have closed, the Arun and Wey Canal once connected the south coast with the main English waterway network and it is hoped one day to restore those links but much work remains to be done. The River Kird drains the parish eastwards soon meeting the Arun which turns water southwards through a gap in the range of the South Downs to reach the English Channel through the port of Littlehampton. Wisborough Green is sited at around 30 metres above the sea, heights in the Low Weald being almost a level it is only a few spots exceeding the 50 metres contour to Wisborough Green's north. Covering almost 8,300 acres Wisborough Green parish was possibly the most extensive parish in its county, that acreage would have supported a population of around 1,800 parishioners. Like most of the Weald Wisborough Green is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on the eastern edges of the village accessed by a dead-end lane running southeast from Newpound Lane, the lane ends at an extensive village green surrounded by cottages with the church further accessed by a pathway between them. Whilst its strangely placed tower immediately draws the eye it is by far from being the earliest portion of the church. The nave shows herringbone masonry indicative of its construction during the 11th century, a Saxo-Norman construct. Three doorways to north, west & south are all from the same early period, one where stone-building of churches had only just begun. Around 1200 the church received its 2-bay aisles complete with round piers and square abaci. It took the 13th century for a major upgrade of the church including the insertion, causing much disruption to the church of the 11th century, of today's thin tower placed at the southwestern corner and carrying its lofty shingled spire. The 13th century also added the impressive chancel with its trademark Early English Gothic lancets throughout, a theme carried into the early clerestory also full of lancets. Following this major rebuild the late medieval period only saw twin porches added, the south in stone and its northern equivalent timber-framed. A thorough restoration in Victorian times completed in 1867 seems to have upset Pevsner who claims it to have "spoiled the church". There is plenty of safe parking around the green which is often upon the green itself, a cobbled pathway leads right of a prominent white-painted cottage to the churchyard, the church sits within a broad churchyard bit has trees clustered closely to its southeastern corner removing that favoured aspect, all other angles are available for the photographer.