England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Manningford Abbots Parish Church

The Parish

The parish of Manningford Abbots lies in the eastern portion of central Wiltshire roughly 2 miles southwest of the small market town of Pewsey. Manningford Abbots sits a quarter of a mile north of the A345 road which links Pewsey with Amesbury and is a rather small place, little more than a hamlet. Manningford Abbots is one of 3 such Manningfords along with Manningford Bohune and Manningford Bruce which lie along the course of the infant River Avon, all are estate villages with Manningford Abbots the smallest. The position in the valley of the Avon gave a little variety to the farming of the area, the majority of the acreage being arable but over 25% as pastures alongside the river. Modern developments have come to this quiet rural area, Isambard Brunel's Great Western Railway from London to Exeter carves its way across the northern portion of the parish. The Avon drains the parish southwards passing through Amesbury & Salisbury before reaching the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Manningford Abbots is sited at around 100 metres above the sea to its south rises the Wiltshire Downs with chalk hills reaching 238 metres to the southeast at Milton Hill as a substantial escarpment. Manningford Abbots parish, along with a few others nearby, is elongated on a north/south axis to capture a share of all of the land-forms it acreage, however, was small at just 918 acres which would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. In Domesday Book the 3 Manningfords were recorded as a single entry but with 3 landholders making it tempting to place each with a discrete owner, collectively the 3 had assets of 7 ploughs, meadows & pastures and a mill.

The Church

The parish church has no known dedication and can be found accessed by various footpaths to the northwest of the lane though the parish and close to the banks of the Avon. Sadly this church is not the venue for these marriages as it is a Victorian replacement completed in 1864. The church uses the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century as its theme and is a simple affair of nave and chancel topped off at the western end with a double bellcote, some stonework from its predecessor has been reused in its eastern wall. The church was obviously of little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is a terse 3 lines of text. Several footpaths trend towards the church with most folk approaching along that which leaves the lane by the village postbox and where the verge is widened for a car or two to get off-road. From here it is a short shady walk to the church which lies within a largely open and uncluttered churchyard.