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

The Parish

The parish of Donhead St Mary, one of a pair of Donheads with St Andrew, lies in the extreme southwest of Wiltshire, indeed it forms part of the border with neighbouring Dorset. Donhead St Mary is a straggling village built upon an oval of lanes about 3 miles northeast of the Dorset market town of Shaftesbury, it stands about a mile north of the A30 road which links Shaftesbury to Salisbury. Donhead St Mary would have earned its living largely from pastoral farming although there was also much quarrying of the local sandstone for building stone. Donhead St Mary sits at the foot of the Wiltshire Downs in fairly undulating countryside. The parish is drained is drained to the northeast by the River Nadder which runs between the two Donheads and eventually reaches the Avon at Salisbury turning south to enter the English Channel at Christchurch. Donhead St Mary spreads over quite an elevational range, the church sits at 160 metres above the sea whilst the lowest parts of the village by the Nadder are 40 metres or so lower. Donhead St Mary parish was of a typical size for this area, it covered just over 5,500 acres and supported a population of almost 1,600 parishioners. In Domesday times Donhead St Mary was reported along with its neighbour jointly where they were held by Shaftesbury Abbey, the pair boasted 27 ploughs as well as an impressive 8 mills.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on a ridge of land which rises still further to form Tittle Path Hill. The church is at a fork in a narrow lane and occupies an elevated position on the northern side of Church Lane. St Mary has small indications of an aisle-less Norman church which was extensively added to over the centuries. Aisles were added in the 12th century, a clerestory in the 13th and the western tower was probably built or more likely rebuilt in the Perpendicular era. Collectively the church is an impressive one and of a size for its many parishioners. The church sits above head height with the bank held back by a stone wall, sloping pathways rise from both eastern and western ends of the site to grant entry through a metal arched gateway or wooden gate respectively. Once inside the churchyard there are few obstructions to photography.