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

The Parish

The parish of Compton Chamberlayne lies in southern Wiltshire roughly 8 miles west of the city of Salisbury. Compton Chamberlayne sits immediately north of the A30 road which links Salisbury with Shaftesbury. Compton Chamberlayne is a small estate village consisting of a single northward running High Street from the A30 to the estate of Compton Park, the home of the Penruddock built in the 16th century and modified in the 18th. The area sits upon a green sandstone which is used throughout the cottages of the village giving an attractive appearance. Compton Chamberlayne sits within a side valley of the River Nadder in the vale between twin ridges of harder bedding, this setting gave Compton Chamberlayne a largely pastoral farming regime, much altered into more arable in modern times. Compton Chamberlayne is drained northwards by its small stream , prettified through Compton Park, which soon meets the Nadder where water turn eastwards, the Nadder joins the Wiltshire Avon at Salisbury, turns south and eventually reaches the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Compton Chamberlayne sits at around 90 metres above the sea at the parish church, to the south the steep escarpment of Compton Down dominated the southern views, it reaches a high point of 201 metres at Chiselbury Camp, an ancient Iron Age hill-fort which stands above the slopes bedecked with military badges carved into its face. Compton Chamberlayne parish was typically sized fort this area covering close to 2,100 acres and supporting a population of around 350 parishioners. King William held Compton Chamberlayne in Domesday times where it offered 10 ploughs, meadows, pasture and woodland plus a mill making for a mid-sized rural farming manor.

The Church

St Michael's church sits within the estate of Compton Park at the northern end of the High Street and the village. Whilst St Michael has much of the medieval remaining it is a church which received substantial restoration in Victorian times such that some dating detail is lost. The church has a cruciform layout with a tower to the south. The earliest fabric Pevsner documents is in the transept arches where 13th century Early English Gothic masonry survives the restoration. The northern transept was clearly built before the southern as the later one has masonry in the early 14th century Decorated style. From the later Perpendicular era windows in both nave and chancel survive as do the bell-openings of the tower. The remainder of the church owes its current position to the heavy restoration of 1877. There is parking available at various spots along the High Street, the access road to the church & house forks right from here it is around 100 yards to the church which stands in a churchyard which has some tree-issues for the photographer, the eastern end in particular is heavily wooded removing the favoured southeastern viewpoint, other trees are dotted around but more easily avoided.