England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Honiley St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Honiley lies in the western portion of central Warwickshire roughly 3 miles west of the market town of Kenilworth. Honiley sits on and to the east of the A4177 road which links Warwick with Balsall Common. Honiley is a tiny place, a church, a hall, a few farms and cottages and a large hotel on the main road is all there is to it, a real blink-and-miss settlement. Honiley is an estate settlement dominated by Honiley Hall with the twin wings of the Old Hall standing guard over the entrance to the church. As all land was held by a single landowner and inbound migration was discouraged no village existed. The needs of the estate dominated the local economy which was largely devoted to pastoral farming. Honiley is drained eastwards by a tributary of the Finham Brook which merges with that stream to pass through Kenilworth to the Avon, from here water turns back southwestwards, meets the Severn and eventually the sea through the Bristol Channel. Honiley is sited at around 120 metres above the sea with much land hereabouts at a similar height the highest ground bring to the northwest where 130 metres is reached in a few spots. Honiley parish was one of the smallest in its county, covering just 635 acres and supporting close to 50 parishioners. Honiley is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

The lane to both the church, the site of the old hall and the newer version heads eastwards from the A4177 opposite the Warwickshire Park Hotel. As can readily be seen this is a relatively modern church, it was completed in 1723 and financed by the owner of the hall, John Sanders. The western tower is the principal attraction of the church being "bold and Baroque" according to Pevsner. The main body of the church is a little more prosaic consisting of merely a nave with an eastern apse. The architect of the church is debated with the son of Sir Christopher Wren cited frequently as well as Thomas Archer the architect of the very similar Birmingham Cathedral. The lane forks after a quarter of a mile with the left-hand one heading to the church, a large car park sits midway between the twin service wings of the old hall. The churchyard is entered between elaborate gate posts bearing the coats of arms of the Sanders family, the churchyard is open and uncluttered with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.