England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Salcombe Regis St Mary & St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Salcombe Regis, it gets its suffix from being a royal demesne in ancient times, lies in southeastern Devon firming a stretch of the county's English Channel coastline. Salcombe Regis is located roughly 6 miles southeast of the small market town of Ottery St Mary and sits just over a quarter south of the A3053 road which connects the city of Exeter with Dorset's Lyme Regis. Salcombe Regis actually sits inland from the coast at the head of a steep sided V-shaped valley, a "coombe" in these parts, here most properties sit around a complex intersection of various lanes. The landscape hereabouts is strongly incised and underlain by a mixture of red sandstones and chalk, both of these were quarried the former for building stone, the latter for burning for lime. Whilst most of the quarries closed in earlier times repair work required on Exeter Cathedral in the 1970s resulted in the re-opening of Dunscombe Quarry to match the existing stone. Besides these extractive businesses pastoral farming would have been the main economic driver. As the parish also included the east bank of the Sid some fishing would have gone to sea from that location. Today Salcombe Regis thrives on tourism both for the natural beauty of its landscape whilst its roller-coaster cliffs provide a stiff challenge for hikers on the South West Way Coastal Trail which passes through the parish. The Sid and its tributaries carry Salcombe Regis' water to the nearby English Channel. Salcombe Regis is sited at around 150 metres above the sea at the church, the parish having land between sea level and the local high point of Soldier's Hill which reaches 175 metres, a few tops east & west of nearby Sidbury exceed even that. Salcombe Regis parish was typically sized for its area, covering around 2,700 acres it would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Salcombe Regis was a holding of the Bishop of Exeter and typical of many farming settlements at that time, it offered 8 ploughs backed by meadows, pastures and woodland.

The Church

St Mary & St Peter's church stands at the very head of the coombe which steeply falls away to the coast at Salcombe Mouth, it is accessed by the dead-end lane of Church Lane which carries a blue sign indicating the way to the beach. At its core the church is Norman but much modified over the centuries such that only fragments of the original fabric is left. Pevsner points out the northern arcade and the south wall of the chancel as being from the 12th century Norman Romanesque period. The 13th century saw various windows in the Early English Gothic style and changes to the arches of that northern arcade, all resulted in a documented dedication date recorded as 1259. Further changes to chancel windows and it chancel arch together with the southern arcade are probably from c1300 making them examples of the Transitional era. The western tower is later and Perpendicular in style but whether late 14th or 15th century is unclear, its tall stair turret being a feature. More definitively 15th century is the two storey extension holding the vestry and a charnel house, also Perpendicular in style but of the later period. Two phases of restoration were directed mainly at the chancel, the first of 1869 is labeled "unemphatic" by Pevsner whereas that of 1924 he feels was altogether more successful. For a short visit there is space outside the lychgate which serves for entry, otherwise signs point the way to the church's car park. Much of the eastern aspects are markedly impeded by close trees leaving some the better views from the lane itself.