England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Kingston Lisle St John the Baptist

The Parish

The chapelry of Kingston Lisle, its mother parish being Sparsholt, lies in western Berkshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Wiltshire. Kingston Lisle is one of a series of spring-line villages lying beneath the escarpment of the Berkshire Downs and sits roughly 5 miles west of the market town of Wantage a quarter mile north of the B4507 road which links Wantage westwards to the Berkshire border at Ashbury. Kingston Lisle, which included the hamlet of Fawler is built around a triangular intersection of lanes with the southeastern quarter consisting of church and Kingston Lisle Park. This house is a large and complex building from the late 17th century onwards standing in a neat landscape parkland. The needs of the estate would have dominated the economy of the chapelry, arable farming in the main on lower ground whilst the steep escarpment slopes and meagre soils of the chalk would have only been suitable for the grazing of sheep. Modern developments came and went from the chapelry, the Wilts & Berks Canal, having fallen into disuse but patiently being restored today, skirts the northernmost edge of the chapelry's acreage. Kingston Lisle is drained northwards by small tributaries of the River Ock which turns east to meet the Thames at Abingdon, thereafter through the capital to the North Sea. Kingston Lisle is sited at 120 metres above the sea but the noble escarpment of the chalk to its immediate rises to 261 metres on nearby Whitehorse Hill, it name a nod to the carved White Horse set into its northern face, which is summitted by the Ridgeway National Trail. Roughly 2,000 acres of Sparsholt parish are set aside for Kingston Lisle chapelry within that acreage would have been supported close to 400 parishioners. In Domesday times Kingston Lisle was retained by King William, himself, it was a profitable small holding offering 13ploughs and a 200 acre meadow.

The Church

St John's church sits just east of the meeting point of the three limbs of the village, and is tucked away behind high hedging to its south at the entrance gates of Kingston Lisle Park. Like many small rural churches the earliest origins remain despite the attentions of later restorers and St John has a Norman Romanesque style window of the 12th century and the plain northern doorway, enhanced by splendid iron-hinge work is given a c1200 date by Pevsner. The main body of the church, perhaps originally early 14th century as evidenced by a Decorated style window on the eastern face of the chancel, was largely rebuilt in the early 17th century, given new windows and roof. The attractive timber adornments of the porch and bell-turret complete with its spirelet are additions of the major restoration, in this case it was of 1883. Whilst the lane, which curves northward at the church to head for Stanford in the Vale, is rather narrow the broad entrances to churchyard & park allow a car to safely get off-road without blocking access allowing an extended visit. The well-screened churchyard has a rather small metal gate for entry but the churchyard is open to the parkland from the south, whilst the church is rather hemmed-in from both eastern and western ends, a good view of the bell-turret is not available, all other aspects are there for the photographer.