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

The Parish

The parish of Goathill has had a changeable geographic position, it used to lie in the extreme southeast of Somerset but was in 1974 transferred to neighbouring Dorset, we follow the traditional approach and place it in Somerset forming part of the border with Dorset. Goathill is located about 2 miles east of the Dorset market town of Sherborne and sits, on a narrow lane, just over a mile south of the A30 road which connects Sherborne with Shaftesbury. There is not much to Goathill, and clearly there has always been so, little more than a scatter of farms on the northern banks of the upper River Yeo. Pastoral farming would have been the primary landuse albeit some quarrying of the local stone for building would have occurred. The Yeo drains the parish westwards, through Yeovil, to join the Parrett at Langport and thence to the Bristol Channel through the port of Bridgwater. Goathill is sited at around 70 metres above the sea and sits in a gentle vale formed by the Yeo, lad rises principally to the north to reach a local height of 130 metres on nearby Vartenham Hill close to Milborne Port. Goathill parish was one of the smallest in its county, indeed amongst rural parishes one of the smallest in the land, covering just over 200 acres it would have supported fewer than 50 parishioners. Goathill was present, however, even in Domesday times, a holding of Count Robert of Mortain it was small with assets of 2 ploughs, some meadows & woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on the western side of the lane running south from the A30 just before that road crosses the Yeo. A tiny church for a tiny parish yet one of some antiquity, the nave shows a single pointed lancet indicative of the Early English Gothic period of the late 13th century. The church consists solely of nave & chancel in one topped by a western bellcote, the chancel was built in 1873 when presumably a restoration took place. The church sits by a farm track with just a small white sign indicating its present when one arrives from the north. There is just about room for a car to park beyond that entrance. Steps rise to gates into the churchyard which has a few trees, especially around that western end but they do not unduly restrict photography.