England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Brinkworth St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Brinkworth lies almost centrally within northern Wiltshire roughly 4 miles west of Royal Wootton Bassett. Brinkworth is a curiously linear village which sits on the B4042 road which connects Royal Wootton Basset with Malmesbury. Brinkworth occupies the B4042 road for almost 2 miles from Causeway End in the west, as a continuous scatter of properties eastwards until Callow Hill, there is very little north/south depth to the village, however. Brinkworth's economy was almost totally dependent upon pastoral farming, early gazetteers place almost 90% of the parish acreage as set to pasture with the remainder utilised for cereals, today there has been a marked shift towards the latter regie with the advent of modern machinery & fertilisers. Modern developments have come to Brinkworth, Brunel's Great Western Railway carves its way along the valley of Brinkworth Brook en route from London to Bristol whilst the modern M4 motorway does much the same for vehicles across the valley to the south. The Brinkworth Brook drains the parish westwards to meet the Avon to the south of Malmesbury, the latter continues westwards to reach the Bristol Channel through Bristol and its iconic Avon Gorge. Brinkworth is sited on the northern slopes of the valley at between 90 & 110 metres in relatively gentle terrain for its county, local high points reach just a little higher at 126 metres on Somerford Common to the northeast. Brinkworth parish was rather extensive for a southern rural farming parish, covering almost 5,500 acres it is more reminiscent in size to an upland parish, within that acreage there would have been supported a healthy population of close to 1,700 parishioners. In Domesday times  Brinkworth was also sufficiently populous to be amongst the 20% largest settlements recorded even if its assets, shared between Malmesbury Abbey & Miles Crispin, do not justify such status, it could muster just 10 ploughs together with the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Michael's church sits almost centrally along the straggle of properties that make up the village, set just into School Hill and sitting opposite the Three Crowns Inn. Whilst a round arch displayed in the eastern wall of the southern aisle is undoubtedly Norman Romanesque in style and from the 12th century Pevsner is sceptical as to whether it is in its original place, besides this early piece much else is in the Perpendicular style. The chancel, despite a Victorian rebuild, is a very early example of this style, certainly 14th century and possibly as early as the 13th, very early for Perpendicular styling. Stepping to the west, the battlemented tower is next in date and definitively 14th century Perpendicular, it is followed in sequence by the nave and southern aisle. The use of battlements is not confined to the tower as the parapets of the aisles and also the southern porch carry this decorative motif. As already mentioned the usual Victorian restoration occurred, the chancel was rebuilt along with a general refresh in the late 1870s. School Hill is sufficiently broad enough to permit street parking away from the exits to the church and inn. Iron Gates grant entry to a churchyard which is fairly capacious and with no obstacles other than a few young trees to obscure the church for the photographer.