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

The Parish

The parish of Woburn lies in the extreme west of Bedfordshire, indeed it forms part of the county's border with neighbouring Buckinghamshire. Woburn is a small market town situated about 15 miles southwest of the county town of Bedford and located on the junction of the the A4012 (Husborne Crawley to Leighton Buzzard) road with the short spur of the A5130 (heading towards eastern Milton Keynes). The small town sits just a couple of miles east of the A5 which follows the Roman Watling Street. Woburn is also the site of Woburn Abbey founded in 1145 for the Cistercian order but, of course, dissolved by Henry VIII. Mention of modern Woburn would not be complete without the estate of the Dukes of Bedford and its attractions, conceived as a means of retaining the estate the Safari & Deer Parks are a popular visitor attraction and income earner for the estate. Woburn's market status has lapsed in more recent times as has its former thread-lace industry but its tourism bolsters an economy based on farming. Woburn is drained by small streams which head north & westwards to join the Ouzel, from there the Great Ouse and through the Fens to the North Sea via the Wash. Woburn is sited at around 120 metres above the sea, it sits on an area of higher ground for this part of the country with local heights rising to 160 metres within a couple of miles, the local hills sit on a ridge of Greensand. Woburn parish was one of the largest in extent in Bedfordshire, it covered almost 3,500 acres and would have supported a population of just over 1,900 parishioners. In Domesday times Woburn was a very small place, largely held by one Walter Giffard it held only 8 ploughs together with meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits just east of the A4012 on the road which crosses the estate (Park Street). Sadly St Mary is not some mediaeval masterpiece but a Victorian replacement built in the 1860s for the 8th Duke of Bedford. The church follows a style from the 12th century, the Norman Romanesque styles likened by Pevsner to Anjou and Poitou in France. A large church as befits the size of the congregation it has an unusual placement of the tower to the southwestern corner rather than a central crossing tower as would be typical of that period. The tower originally was topped by a spire but this proved unsafe and was removed in 1890. Park Street has broad grassy verges with plenty of room to get well off the road, the churchyard, behind a low stone wall, has few obstructions to photography.