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

The Parish

The parish of Great Barford lies in northeastern Bedfordshire about 6 miles east of the county town of Bedford. Great Barford is a large, sprawling village which sits on western banks of the Great Ouse and roughly a mile south of the busy A421 road which connects Bedford to the A1 (The Great North Road). Great Barford has expanded greatly in modern times and now stretches for almost 2 miles along the lane leading to the partly 15th century bridge crossing the river. The main road through Great Barford (at right angles to the above mentioned lane) is the former route of the A421 which has now been dualled to take traffic more freely to the main north to south route leaving Great Barford much quieter as a result. Great Barford's economy would have been dominated by farming, its riverside setting allowing pastoral farming as well as the more usual arable for this area. The Great Ouse drains the parish northeastwards and eventually reaches the North Sea through The Wash. Great Barford is sited at around 20 metres above the sea in gently undulating land, local heights rise to little more than 50 metres within a few miles of the village. Great Barford parish was of a fairly typical size for its area, it covered around 2,800 acres and would have supported a population of around 800 parishioners. In Domesday time Great Barford was held by one Hugh of Beauchamp and could offer 20 ploughs as well as meadows and 2 mills.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the southeastern end of the village close to the bridge crossing the Great Ouse. Much of the church is of the Perpendicular period and later but Pevsner is quick to notice stonework (long-and-short work where stones are place alternately with the long face horizontal and the vertical) which is characteristic of Saxon times raising the possibility of a pre-Conquest origin. The big western tower which dominates the adjoining lane is typical Perpendicular and of limestone as opposed to the remainder in a curious brown cobble. Victorian work included the usual restoration whilst both northern and southern aisles were also added in the mid-19th century. All Saints' sits on the eastern side of the High St just north of the Anchor Inn and is enclosed by a chest-height brick wall with gates at the southern end. The churchyard is fairly compact and bordered by trees which do somewhat restrict the angles available for photography when in leaf.