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

The Parish

The parish of Alvediston lies in the extreme southwest of Wiltshire, around a mile from the border with neighbouring Dorset. Alvediston is located about 8 miles east of the Dorset market town of Shaftesbury and sits within the Wiltshire Downs. Alvediston sits, in lanes, about 3 miles south of the A30 road which connects Shaftesbury with Salisbury, a small and compact village lying amongst the headwaters of the River Ebble. At the time of this transcript Alvediston would have been a farming community dominated by the pasturage of sheep, much has changed with the advent of modern fertilisers the land is now almost totally set to arable. Alvediston sits within the historic landscape of early Wiltshire, the hills around being topped with tumuli, barrows and earthworks, whilst a couple of miles to the south runs the ancient route of the "Ox Way", a droving route for many centuries. The Ebble drains the parish eastwards to meet the Wiltshire Avon to the south of Salisbury, where it turns south to reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Alvediston is sited at around 120 metres above the sea and sits in the shallow valley of the Ebble with land rising to close to 250 metres to both north and south on White Sheet Hill & Trow Down respectively. Wiltshire Downland parishes are larger than many but Alvediston was one of the smaller in this region, it covered just over 2,700 acres and would have supported a population of just over 250 parishioners. There is no specific mention of Alvediston in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church sits just over a quarter mile away from the main junction of the village on the opposite side of the Ebble. The church is unusual in being very late in its construction, the earliest evidence, the tower, a window in the nave and the tower arch, dates the main fabric of the church only to the 17th century, an unusual period for church building. Much else dates from a major restoration/rebuild which took place in 1866 and resulted in most dating detail being lost. As the lane rises from the crossing of the Ebble a white sign points down a rutted track the short distance to the church and its accompanying farm. There is ample space for parking outside the churchyard on the grassy paddock. A prominent tree takes up the best angle (that from the southeast) but otherwise the churchyard is relatively free from photographic obstacles.