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

The Parish

The parish of Sharnbrook lies in northwestern Bedfordshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Sharnbrook is located roughly 6 miles southeast of the Northamptonshire town of Rushden and sits about a mile west of the A6 road which links Rushden with Bedford. Sharnbrook is a much grown place, early maps show the village as a linear run along today's High Street with a short western extension to the church. Much of Sharnbrook's growth is from modern development with extensions westward and northwestward from the original centre. Sharnbrook, at the time of this transcript would have been a farming village with early gazetteers estimating its balance as 2:1 in favour of arable over pasture. To the northwest of the village sits the grounds of Colworth House, once an extra-parochial area, which now houses the Colworth Science Park with over 554,000 square feet of laboratory, office and ancillary space, it's mission statement is that "academia, SMEs and life science companies come together to drive technology transfer and accelerate the commercialisation of R&D". Further northwest and the sound of angry motor engines greets you as Santa Pod Drag Racing Track occupies a former World War II airbase. Modern developments began with the arrival of railways in 1857 with the line from Bedford to Wellingborough once granting Sharnbrook a station that has now closed. Sharnbrook sits very close to the meandering course of the Great Ouse which drains the parish south to Bedford then back north to reach the North Sea through The Wash. Sharnbrook is sited around 60 metres above the sea in gently rolling countryside, away from the Great Ouse heights of just over 100 metres can be found around Santa Pod. Sharnbrook parish was fairly typically sized for this area, covering just under 2,400 acres and supporting a population of around 850 parishioners. Domesday Sharnbrook was just sufficiently large enough to just climb into the top 20% of settlements by population, given it had only 37 households it shows what a low bar that is; the manor was shared between no fewer than 8 landholders with collective assets of 14 ploughs, extensive meadows and woodland and 2 mills.

The Church

St Peter's church sits about 100 yards west of the main High Street accessed along Church Lane. The church's fabric has styles from the 13th through to the 15th centuries with some modern thrown in for good measure. The earliest fabric dates from the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style, the southern doorway together with both arcades and the chancel arch complete the roster for this period, the arcades showing the classic alternative round and octagonal alternating piers. Moving into the 14th century is the northern doorway which has good examples of finely detailed mouldings. Also Decorated in style is the Tofte Chapel, which sits to the north but the main Decorated piece is the basal portion of the towering western tower with neat flowing tracery in its western window. The recessed spire that it bears is an addition from the following style of the Perpendicular as is much of the exterior that we see today. A typical Victorian restoration in 1855-58 tackled the nave in particular leaving the floors of nave & chancel at differing heights, Further work was done in the 1930 to stabilise the spire with thin flying buttresses and corner pinnacles. To the east of the churchyard a triangular parking area allows a few vehicles to safely park off road, entry being through wooden gates beneath a large tree, whilst there are further trees around they are easily avoided and cause no concern for the photographer.