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

The Parish

The parish of Oakley lies in northwestern Bedfordshire roughly 4 miles northwest of the county town of Bedford. Oakley sits immediately west of the A6 road which links Bedford with Kettering. Oakley is a much grown village, early maps show the village gathered around the junction to the north of the parish church, modern developments have extended the village northwards such that it now encompasses a rough triangular shape with each side a rough half mile. At the time of this transcript Oakley would have primarily been a farming parish, it sits almost enclosed with a meander of the River Great Ouse with that river to north, west & south providing rich pastureland on its flood-plain, the drier parts to the east being arable. A local speciality that lead to some industry was the exploitation of the local clays in manufacture of tiles which employed many, the freestone underlying the higher parts of the parish was also extracted for local building. Modern developments have come in abundance to Oakley, the railway line from Bedford to Wellingborough passes to the east, Oakley no longer has a station but some growth was sparked by it former presence, also to the east the A6 has been upgraded to fast dual-carriageway prompting yet more suburban growth to both Bedford and the north. Oakley is drained by the Great Ouse which passes through Bedford and travels east out into Fenland to eventually reach the North Sea through the Norfolk port of Kings Lynn and The Wash. Oakley is sited on rising ground between 30 & 50 metres above the sea, the isolated hummock of Oakley Hill to the northeast stands at 73 metres whilst further away from the Great Ouse heights of closer to 90 metres are more common. Covering a little over 1,700 acres Oakley parish was typically sized for its area, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 500 parishioners. Domesday Oakley was held in the majority by Robert de Tosny and offered 13 ploughs some meadows and a mill.

The Church

St Mary's church stands almost on the banks of the Great Ouse to the south of the village and on the eastern side of Church Lane which heads across the river to Bromham. The church shows fabric from most of the regular style periods right from the earliest times. The earliest fabric is 12th century Norman Romanesque in style and is found at the western end of the nave and the basal stages of the western tower which shows small Norman windows midway up its faces. In the 13th century and in the Early English Gothic period the church was considerably extended, the nave was extended in size and given arcades, firstly the northern and soon after a southern, lancet styled windows survive to confirm the dating. By the early 14th century the southern aisle had to be rebuilt and the Decorated style was used in its reconstruction. The later Perpendicular period of the 15th and early 16th century saw further expansion of the church, the tower was heightened and given battlements, the 2-storey porch was added as well as a clerestory and many windows replaced with tracery of that later style. Victorian restoration was not significant in changing the basic structure. To the north of the site there is a substantial car park allowing a relaxed visit, a short pathway parallels the road to the gates of a churchyard which has few obstacles to concern the photographer.