England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hannington All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Hannington lies in the extreme north of Hampshire forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Berkshire. Hannington is located roughly 7 miles northeast of the town of Basingstoke and sits about 2 miles southeast of the A339 road which links Basingstoke with Newbury in Berkshire. Hannington is a small village built around a "T" junction of lanes and sitting immediately south of the ancient Roman Road of the Portway. Hannington sits in an upland position on Hampshire's share of the Berkshire Downs and is underpinned by chalk which gave poor arable soils and would have been dominated by sheep grazing and also by warrenries for the supply of rabbits for food. Sitting upon porous chalk there is no surface drainage with most water making its way sub-surface to emerge as a feeder stream for the River Enborne which here forms the county border with Berkshire, the Enborne flows northeastwards to meet the Kennet which in turn feeds the Thames on its long journey to the North Sea through the capital. Hannington is sited at around 200 metres above the sea with land falling away northeastwards by over 100 metres, to its west the chalk rises to form the iconic Watership Down which inspired rabbit-based literature and reaches 237 metres high above a pronounced escarpment than pertains at Hannington. Covering 2,000 acres the parish was typically sized for its are and supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. Domesday Hannington was largely held by the Bishop of Winchester and held assets of 9 ploughs as a typically modest agricultural manor of its day.

The Church

All Saints' church stands west of the main north to south running lane through the village and also just west of the large village green which dominates the village. Outwardly, as a consequence of aggressive Victorian restoration, the church appears relatively modern but that is certainly not the case. Pevsner's forensic eye notices Saxon long-and-short work of the northeastern quoin of the nave suggesting an 11th century origin, a theory further supported by the Norman-styled responds to the chancel arch of the 12th century. The two easternmost bays of the southern arcade are also late 12th century confirming the ancient origins of the church. In the 13th century and showing the Early English Gothic motifs of that century is the rebuilt chancel arch on its original responds, the northern doorway is also of this era. The nave appears to be Perpendicular in style perhaps as a consequence of work in the 15th century. The Victorian restoration of 1856 was a thorough affair lengthening the church westwards and adding today's shingled bell-turret above, also in the 1850s the northern porch was added and further work was done in 1884 on the chancel roofing to complete the church as we see it today. The green offers ample parking and at its northwestern corner the main entrance to the churchyard through a lychgate, a path leads diagonally through a belt of trees to an open and uncluttered churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.