England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Highway St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Highway lies in central Wiltshire about 4 miles northeast of the market town of Calne, it was created, initially as a chapelry, from the larger parish of Hilmarton; the parish has now been resubsumed and the church deconsecrated. Highway is little more than a hamlet, a scatter of farms and cottages on the springline at the foot of the Wiltshire Downs. Highway sits in lanes 2 miles east of the A3102 road which links Calne to Wootton Bassett. Highway would have had a mixed farming regime in the past with sheep grazing the downs and arable in the valleys, nowadays it is almost totally arable. Highway's drainage is head westwards through Fishers & Cowage Brooks to join the River Marden, a tributary of the Avon and headed for the Bristol Channel. Highway is sited at around 100 metres above sea level, land rises immediately to east and south onto the downs a further 70 metres higher, The parish of Highway was small by Wiltshire standards, covering barely 800 acres it supported a mere 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Highway was almost totally held by Malmesbury Abbey, it could boast 6 ploughs as well as meadows and pastures.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on the western side of Highway's main lane. It is now deconsecrated and sold as a private house; there is strictly no access to the grounds. The building is a Victorian creation consisting of nave, chancel and timber bell-turret. Pevsner devotes just a handful of lines to it as it clearly offers little in the way of architectural interest. Given the private nature of the present building it is only from the roadside where photography is possible and that, of course, limits you to a single angle due to mature trees.