England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hanley Castle St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Hanley Castle lies in southwestern Worcestershire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Herefordshire. Hanley Castle is located roughly 4 miles southeast of the spa town of Great Malvern and sits on the B4211 road which links Great Malvern with Upton upon Severn. Whilst the village of Hanley Castle is a relatively small riverside settlement sitting upon the banks of the Severn, an estate village dominated by the grounds of The Park which stands northeast of the small group of properties surrounding the church, the wider parish is extensive and spreads west to finish at the county boundary on the Malvern Hills. That wider parish encompasses the larger village of Hanley Swan, a crossroads settlement around 2 miles further west as well a few smaller hamlets. The parish includes large areas of riverside meadows as well as a broad plain and the rougher pastures of the Malvern Hills leading to a diverse farming environment with equal measures of arable and pasture, as reported in early gazetteers. The castle which donates its name to village and parish was built in the reign of King John, c 1212 as a hunting lodge for the royal forest that once sat on the Malverns, after passing through the hands of many prominent local families it was demolished in 1795 with its final remains re-used to repair the bridge at Upton upon Severn. The Severn drains the parish southwards passing through Gloucester to meet the Bristol Channel through its estuary. Hanley Castle is sited at around 20 metres above the sea with Hanley Swan some 15 metres higher, the Malvern Hills form the highest ground for some distance, the intrusion of harder rock types rising to 338 metres on Herefordshire Beacon and 425 metres on its counterpart Worcestershire Beacon. As already mentioned Hanley Castle parish was extensive, it covered around 5,700 acres making it more reminiscent of a northern upland parish in size, within that acreage it would have supported a population of close to 1,650 parishioners. In Domesday times Hanley Castle was a settlement of such size as to be amongst the largest 20% of settlements by population recorded in that book, its assets, retained by King William, matched that status with an impressive 23 ploughs being backed by 5 leagues of woodland and 2 mills.

The Church

St Mary's church sits amongst a delightfully picturesque grouping of properties bearing the name of Church End, almshouses in black and white half timbering are offset by the Three Kings Inn and a small green dominated by a large ancient tree. The church is as picturesque as its setting, an ancient edifice with fabric dating back to the Norman Conquest. The nave is the earliest remaining fabric and although it was remodelled in the 14th century retains much that reveals it to 12th century and Norman Romanesque in style. That 14th century rebuild saw the broad northern aisle added as well as changing the existing nave. The northern aisle in the Decorated style is complemented by its northern arcade of 4-bays which is also early 14th century and Decorated in style. Most of the eastern end of the church, however, including the unusually place central tower, date from a rebuild in the unusual century for major church building, namely the 17th century. Funded by Sir Nicholas Lechmere the eastern end was entirely rebuilt in brick utilising Tudor styles rarely seen in English churches. The Victorians too added their usual restoration, here it fell in 1868 and as well as refreshing the stonework and replacing many windows they added both porches, the southern in stone its northern equivalent being of timber. The access to the church leaves the B4211 at a crossroads and passes the grounds of the school before terminating in a circlet around the aforementioned green where parking is straightforward. A short spur leads south to the churchyard which is largely free from unavoidable obstacles.