England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Chelmarsh St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Chelmarsh lies in southeastern Shropshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Worcestershire and located roughly 4 miles south of the market town of Bridgnorth. Chelmarsh sits on the meandering B4555 road which links Bridgnorth with Highley and on the western side of the course of the River Severn. Chelmarsh is a rather linear village with distinct clusters at various points along the B4555 but with its main grouping around the church, subsidiary hamlets of Crateford and Sutton hold further small groups. St the time of this transcript Chelmarsh would have been principally a pastoral farming parish with some exploitation of the red sandstone for local building, today arable has arrived following the use of modern machinery & chemicals replacing much of the former pastures. Modern developments of a railway line running south along the Severn from Bridgnorth have transformed into heritage with the line closed and reopening as a steam heritage line, the Severn Valley Railway. Chelmarsh is drained by a combination of two small brooks one of which is dammed to form Chelmarsh Reservoir before entering the Severn, to the west Borle Brook has an independent course for a few miles before joining the Severn south of Highley. The Severn has a lengthy journey to meet the sea as the Bristol Channel. Chelmarsh is sited at around 120 metres above the sea in rolling terrain, to the west hills rise to a spot height of 217 metres west of nearby Middleton Scriven. Covering just over 3,100 acres Chelmarsh was typical of western pastoral parishes which tended to be larger in extent, that acreage supported a population of around 500 parishioners. Domesday Chelmarsh was held by the local lord Ralph de Mortimer, a powerful local family in the borderlands of Wales, it was a modest rural manor offering just 9 ploughs.

The Church

St Peter's church sits amongst the main cluster forming the village of Chelmarsh on the eastern side of the B4555 and set back a distance from that road. Whilst there is evidence, a re-set northern doorway, of a 12th century Norman Romanesque building that church was replaced and financed by the de Mortimers in the early 14th century by today's version. Documentary evidence records the endowment of a chantry in 1345 for Hugh de Mortimer which, Pevsner implies, marks the end of a single building period. That date is consistent with the styling of the main body of the church which is uniformally in the Decorated style of that half of the 14th century.  Both nave and chancel are completed in ashlar but with a lean-to northern aisle in a rubble stone, a 4-bay arcade is contemporary. The basal two stages of the western tower are also early 14th century and Decorated in style but its topmost two stages is later having been reconstructed in the early 18th century if a date of 1720 marked on the bells is consistent with the rebuild. A typical Victorian restoration of 1887 added the southern porch whilst restoring the church in a light and sensitive manner. West of the churchyard entrance a dog-legged lane heads east and north, its entrance is widened to provide safe parking outside the gates which are wooden and set within a post-and-rail fence. A pathway leads across the sizeable churchyard to the church which has clear and unobstructed views from the favoured angles of the photographer.