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

The Parish

The parish of Haseley lies in the southwestern area of central Warwickshire roughly 4 miles northwest of the county town of Warwick. Haseley is located on the A4177 road, a link road connecting Warwick through to Balsall Common. There is not much to modern day Haseley, no village centre, as such, merely a scatter of farms and cottages across the parish, the church stands alone in fields with only a couple of farms nearby for company. This area of the county was of good quality soil and Haseley would have mainly earned its income from arable farming, early gazetteers note turnip & barley as the main crops. Despite its rural position modern developments have come thick and fast to the parish; the Grand Union Canal was forged through rising in a run of over 20 locks and was followed by the line of the London to Birmingham railway which follows a similar route; slightly further away to the southwest runs the modern M40 motorway to complete a communications bottleneck. Haseley is drained southwards by small brooks heading for and reaching the nearby River Avon, after passing through Stratford upon Avon it eventually meets the Severn and after a long journey the Bristol Channel. Haseley is sited at around 110 metres above the sea, some 60 metres higher than nearby Warwick, hence all of the locks, land hereabout forms a gentle plateau at or 10 metres higher than Haseley's height. Haseley parish was rather thin on an east to west axis being elongated north to south, it was a relatively small parish for its area covering just over 1,100 acres which would have supported a population of just under 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Haseley was an equally modest settlement, held by one Hascoit Musard it could muster a mere 3 ploughs but had extensive woodland and also possessed a mill.

The Church

St Mary's church sits just under a half mile north of the A4177 on the western side of a narrow lane, Firs Lane, running northward from the latter. Like most churches St Mary is a hotch-potch of differing ages, the earliest identifiable feature being the simple southern doorway which Pevsner places to c1200. The main body of the church is if the 14th or early 15th century exploiting the Perpendicular style that was fashionable in those centuries. The nave's northern and southern windows are believed to have been replaced in the 17th century. Georgian restoration work was short-lived, the eastern end's window of 1753 being replaced by the typical Victorian restoration, in this case of 1867, Whilst this restoration was sensitive it did result in the rebuild of the eastern end. Further work of 1900 saw a southern porch added, Pevsner berates its neo-Norman style as being "unfortunate". Firs Lane is rather narrow but a field entrance opposite is undoubtedly used for informal parking. The churchyard is bordered by an intricate iron-latticed fence with hidden gates embedded at the southern end. The churchyard is open and uncluttered with no obstacles for the photographer.