England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Semley St Leonard

The Parish

The parish of Semley lies in the extreme southwest of Wiltshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Dorset. Semley is located roughly 3 miles northeast of the Dorset market town Shaftesbury and sits just over a mile east of the A350 road which links Shaftesbury with Warminster. Semley is a ridge-top crossroads village sitting on the Greensand ridge of the Jurassic period, most properties are gathered around the crossroads with a few more a quarter mile west at Semley Hill. The parish economy was largely pastoral based as the Greensand gives poorer soils unsuitable for intense arable cultivation. The stone did get quarried, however, for local building stone and is widely used in the village cottages. Modern developments have come to Semley, the London Waterloo to Exeter railway line passing through without granting a station. Semley is drained eastwards by the infant River Sem which merges with the Nadder very quickly, the Nadder continues eastwards to eventually meet the Wiltshire Avon in Salisbury from the Avon heads south to the English Channel arriving through Christchurch Harbour. Semley is sited at around 120 metres on its ridge-top, to the northeast, however, across the Sem hills top out at 237 metres at Beacon Hill. Semley parish was typically sized for his area covering more than the usual southern parish's acreage because of the poorer soils, it covered just over 2,900 acres and would have supported a population of close to 750 parishioners. Semley is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Leonard's church sits east of the main crossroads of the village on the southern side of the lane headed for Donhead St Andrew. Early gazetteers report the church as "a very ancient structure, greatly dilapidated", the consequence of that condition was the medieval church's ultimate demolition and replacement by today's church which was only completed in 1875 and was not the venue for these marriages. The church is built in the Decorated style fashionable in the early 14th century and this is maybe a nod to its predecessor. The western tower is the stand-out feature with its tall octagonal stair-turret topped by a slender and rather tall spirelet. The verges outside the gates are well used by church visitors for parking in safety. The church stands within an open and uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles whatsoever for the photographer.