England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Beechingstoke St Stephen

The Parish

The parish of Beechingstoke lies in the northern portion of central Wiltshire roughly 5 miles east of the market town of Devizes. Beechingstoke sits a little under 2 miles north of the A342 road, which links Devizes with the A345 (Pewsey to Salisbury) road. Beechingstoke is a tiny place, little more than a hamlet which consists of a short run of cottages running eastwards from its church, the wider parish having scattered farms and cottages. Beechingstoke sits in the vale between Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Dowsn and is rich and fertile ground ideal from arable farming and cereals in particular. Modern developments have come to the parish, Brunel's Great Western Railway line from Pewsey to Taunton cutting through immediately north of the village. This plain also holds the headwaters of the Wiltshire Avon which has coalesced into a coherent river by the time it drains Beechingstoke, the Avon heads to Salisbury and then south to reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Beechingstoke is sited 110 metres above the sea, a common enough height on the plain but loomed over by the escarpment that forms the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and which tops out at 213 metres at Redhorn Hill. Beechingstoke parish was one of the smaller in its county covering merely 800 acres and supporting a population of almost 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Beechingstoke was held by Shaftesbury Abbey and was an equally modest rural holding offering just 5 ploughs backed by typical meadows & pasture but it did possess a mill.

The Church

St Stephen's church is tucked away at the northwestern end of the small village accessed by a dead-end lane and almost on the banks of the infant Avon and very close to the busy rail line. Sadly noting remains of the medieval in St Stephen as it was rebuilt in 1861 and thus would be unrecognisable to to the participants in these marriages. The church in which they married was hardly medieval either as the nave dated only from a rebuild of 1693 and the chancel was rebuilt midway through the transcript period in 1791. The sole fabric remaining from early times is the chancel arch, which shows double chamfering and is probably 13th century, and the now blocked northern doorway. The access lane ends in a round parking and turning circle, the churchyard is compact and surrounded closely by trees requiring some though by the photographer to find the better views.