England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sherrington St Cosmas & St Damian

The Parish

The parish of Sherrington lies in west-central Wiltshire in the valley of the River Wylye. Sherrington is situated about 6 miles southeast of the market town of Warminster. Sherrington is a small and compact village lying, in lanes, on the south bank of the Wylye, it is a half-mile south of the A36 road which connects Warminster with Salisbury, the rail line between these two places also passes through the parish. Sherrington sits on the edge of the flood plain but the parish encompasses both that plain, used for pasturage of cattle, and the chalk downlands to the south, which would have supported grazing sheep; these two pastoral activities would have underpinned the local economy. The Wylye drains the parish southeastwards to join the Avon and reach the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour. Sherrington is sited at just 90 metres above the sea but land rises markedly to the south to local heights of over 200 metres on the Great Ridge, an area crisscrossed by ancient and Roman trackways. Sherrington parish was one of the smaller in the district, covering just over 1,200 acres it would have supported a population of just under 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Sherrington was held by one Osbern Giffard and could offer just 2 ploughs, some small meadows and pastures but it did possess a half share in a mill.

The Church

St Cosmas & St Damian's church sits close to the River Wylye at the northern end of the village on the northern side of Church Lane. The church is fairly recent having been totally rebuilt just prior to the Civil War. A carved date of 1624 on the porch is indicative of the build period. The builders, however, did reuse some of the materials and features of the mediaeval predecessor and these materials reveal a church that was built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Today's church is small as befits the size of the congregation with nave, chancel and bellcote a typical small village church. The church sits in an elevated position with a hedge-topped bank rising from Church Lane. There are entrances at western and eastern end to a churchyard which is compact indeed and almost triangular in shape. A magnificent thick and clipped hedge borders to the north, the photographic angles are not, however, unduly impeded.