England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hardenhuish St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Hardenhuish lies in northwestern Wiltshire roughly one and a half miles northwest of the market town of Chippenham. Hardenhuish sits a half mile east of the A350 road's bypass of Chippenham en route from the northern edge of that town through to Melksham. Hardenhuish is a much changed parish, early gazetteers show it separated from Chippenham by open fields and it, itself, was merely an estate parish dominated by the parkland of Hardenhuish Park, home of the Clutterbuck family. In those early times the parish was a closed parish, all land held by a single landholder who discouraged inbound migration thus there was no village. Today expanding Chippenham has engulfed the park within its northwestern suburbs. At the time of this transcript the economy of the parish would have been determined by the needs of the estate, a mixed farming regime in place and some exploitation of the local limestone for road-building. Hardenhuish is drained southwards by a small stream, prettified through the park, which soon meets the Wiltshire Avon at Chippenham, the Avon turns matters westwards to pass through both Bath & Bristol to reach the outer Bristol Channel through its iconic gorge. Hardenhuish is sited at around 90 metres above the sea, some 50 metres higher than the Avon's bridge, the landscape is gently rolling limestone countryside rising to local high points no higher than 138 metres within nearby Castle Combe's motor racing circuit. Hardenhuish parish was one of the smallest in its county, covering merely 454 acres and supporting only around 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Hardenhuish was yet smaller, consisting only of 3 households and offering assets only of potential to its Slandholder, one Arnulf de Hesdin, some meadows and woodland were present with potential for up to 4 ploughs not yet in place.

The Church

The modern classical church of St Nicholas' sits on the eastern side of Hardenhuish Lane in Chippenham's northwestern suburbs and on the edge of the parkland of Hardenhuish Park. Completed in 1779 it is deacribed by Pevsner as the "best classical church of the county". The church is small, as befits the size of its congregation, a square body with an apsed ending and a tower above the pedimented doorway, complete with octagonal top. The church has few windows with those either side of the main body in a style derived from the Venetian. Despite the relatively modern date of the church there has been time for modification as in 1856 a restoration straightened the western end of the church. Hardenhuish Lane is a broad thoroughfare which enables on-street parking outside the park's iron gates from where a footpath leads the short distance to the church. Close trees to both northern and eastern sides of the church take away those aspects but the favoured southern ones are readily available to the photographer.