England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Catmore St Margaret

The Parish

The parish of Catmore lies in central western Berkshire, in that part of the county which lies on the chalk hills of the Berkshire Downs. Catmore lies about 2 miles west of the busy A34 road, which links Winchester & Oxford, about 3 miles west of the downland village of East Ilsley. Catmore is a tiny place, little more than a scatter of cottages and farms lying by a narrow lane that climbs the Downs northeastwards from the B4494 (Wantage to Newbury) road. This was not always so, Catmore was, in the 14th century, granted a market but either the fates decided it should shrink or the local landholders decided to restrict access and the parish population gradually reduced. The centre of Catmore lies at about 180 metres above sea level in a dry valley rising to the top of the Downs (around 220 metres above sea level). Due to chalk substrate there is little surface drainage, what waters there are eventually make their way southwestwards to join the River Lambourn, a tributary of the Kennet and ultimately the Thames. The area, at the time of the transcript, would have been dominated by sheep, the poor soils being too stony for arable farming. Nowadays heavy machinery and fertilisers makes a more divers agriculture possible. Catmore parish was rather small for the area, at just over 700 acres it supported fewer than 100 parishioners. As mentioned it was not always so, in Domesday times the parish, held by one Henry of Fyfield, supported a mere 4 ploughs but was worth 5 exemption units which was quite large.

The Church

St Margaret's church is tucked away to the east of Catmore's lane behind some farms. On the surface it appears to be a genuine Norman church but Pevsner unpicks that veracity and attributes most of these features to a restoration sometime prior to 1850. There are undoubted Norman features which are genuine but as Pevsner puts it it is "showy Norman" and down to the restorers. St Margaret's is hidden from the road by a few farm buildings but a prominent gateway marks its entrance, a long tarred driveway giving access to a rather open and unrestricted graveyard making for easy photographic angles.