England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Doddenham St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Doddenham lies in western Worcestershire forming a short stretch of the border with neighbouring Herefordshire. Doddenham is located roughly 7 miles west of the city of Worcester and sits on the A44 road which connects Worcester through to the Herefordshire market town of Bromyard. There is very little to modern day Doddenham, a real blink-and-miss place, merely a group of properties around the junction between the A44 and some narrow lanes winding up a side valley of the River Teme. The valley of the Teme is the backbone of this former estate parish, a closed parish where all land was held by a single landholder so as to discourage inbound migration and the lack of a defined village. The valley setting gave cattle grazing to complement the usual arable farming, the area is also well-known for its hop & fruit growing. The Teme drains the parish eastwards to meet the Severn at Worcester and thence south to meet the Bristol Channel through the latter's estuary. Doddenham is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in rolling countryside where land rises northwards to the prominent hill of Berrow Hill, topped by an Iron Age hill-fort, which tops out at 178 metres. Doddenham parish was a small parish of barely 900 acres within which it would have supported a population of roughly 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Doddenham was in the hands of one Tirrold's son Gilbert and was an equally modest settlement offering just 8 ploughs although the re was a mil, presumably on the Teme/

The Church

St Andrew's church was demolished during the 19th century and nothing remains to see. The church stood close to the junction of lanes with the A44 and a little west of the 18th century Doddenham Hall. Early gazetteers describe a very small church with a wooden spire, the church had been neglected and was consequently lost. A new church, St Mary, was built at the feet of Ankerdine Hill to serve both Doddenham & Knightwick, both parish churches having met with the same end.