England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Westport St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Westport lies in northwestern Wiltshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Gloucestershire. Westport is a strange place, not even mentioned on today's Ordnance Survey maps, as it is in reality merely part of the market town of Malmesbury. Malmesbury is located roughly 10 miles north of the town of Chippenham and sits on the former route of the A429 road linking Chippenham with Cirencester, thankfully that road now bypasses Malmesbury to the east. Early gazetteers refer to Westport as being "adjacent to the north-west side of Malmesbury" but its church of St Mary sits almost centrally within the market town. Westport along with its mother parish would have flourished as a result of the wool trade and its weaving production that followed, today both are merely a regional market centre and home to specialist trades requiring a larger catchment area. Modern developments have come and gone from both Westport & Malmesbury, a branch railway line connecting the town to Brunel's Great Western line having been closed and removed. The town sits on Wiltshire's Avon which drains the parish south as far as Melksham before turning west to pass through Bath & Bristol to the Bristol Channel. Westport is sited at around 80 metres above the sea, away from the Avon valley land rises in gently undulating limestone terrain to local high spots of just over 100 metres to the southeast near Little Somerford. at just over 2,000 acres Westport parish was fairly typically sized for its area, that acreage would have supported a population of around 1,500 parishioners. Given that no registers survive pre-1813 it is likely that many of their marriages are recorded in the registers for Malmesbury parish, Westport is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

Westport's parish churches have a long history of calamity and disuse, the original medieval parish church was demolished during the Civil War, its replacement was almost totally rebuilt in 1841 and was deconsecrated in 1946, today St Mary's church is St Mary's Hall, a space for hire and home for scout troops amongst other users. The former church sat in the fork between Gloucester Road and St Mary's Street and is almost totally the building of 1841, thus not the venue for these marriages. The former church lacks a tower or spire having only a meagre bellcote at the western end of what appears to be almost a barn-like box made of the nave and southern aisle. Pevsner did note the use of some materials from the 17th century church, however. It is clear that this building had little architectural interest for Pevsner as his account is a terse 4 lines of text. Gloucester Road widens south of the former church having a broad parking area outside the Three Cups Inn and adjacent commercial premises allowing a relaxed visit. As the churchyard is barely larger than the former church the only views available are from the surrounding streets and are impacted by close neighbouring properties.