England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Barford St Denis

The Parish

The parish of Little Barford lies in extreme eastern Bedfordshire, indeed it forms part of the border with the neighbouring county of Huntingdonshire. Little Barford lies in the valley of the River Great Ouse about 3 miles south of the Huntingdonshire market town of St Neots and sits astride a lane which heads south from that town parallel to the Great Ouse. There is not much of a settlement to Little Barford just a scatter of cottages and farms with a slight concentration alongside the main lane. Little Barford sits at about 20 metres above sea level where the river plain of the Great Ouse rises to slightly higher land. This boundary marks the shift between pastures on the flood plain and arable fields where the land is drier. The parish is rather small, barely 1,200 acres, and supported a correspondingly small number of parishioners, just short of 200. In Domesday times the land was owned by Osbern Fitzwalter and supported a mere 5 ploughs.

The Church

St Denis' church lies slightly away from the main lane, accessed down a metalled track towards the Great Ouse. There seems to be some dispute as to the dedication (either St Mary or St Denis) this page follows Pevsner in naming it St Denis. There are several features which are dateable to the Norman period but the majority is from the Decorated era. This places the church amongst the earlier ones for this area with a build date in the late 13th or early 14th centuries. The church sits at the end of its 1/4 mile long lane very close to the Great Ouse in a semi-parkland setting, woodland screens the river to the southwest but there are views to the north somewhat marred by the 1940s power station.