England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Waltham St Lawrence

The Parish

The parish of Waltham St Lawrence lies in eastern Berkshire, a peninsula of the county surrounded on all sides by Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey & Hampshire and to all of which Waltham St Lawrence is close. Waltham St Lawrence is located about 7 miles east of the county town of Reading and 5 miles southwest of Maidenhead. Waltham St Lawrence is a large and rather sprawling settlement which sits just north of the B3024 road which connects Twyford with Windsor, modern communications also pass through the parish, the main London to the South West Line passes to the north and close to the village. At the time of this transcript Waltham St Lawrence would have been a quiet arable farming community, today the village is a popular residence for workers in the Thames Silicon Valley industries and has grown significantly reflecting high house prices in this area. A small tributary drains Waltham St Lawrence westwards to the nearby River Loddon whence it turns north and meets the Thames at Wargrave, a journey through the capital to the North Sea results. Waltham St Lawrence is sited at 40 metres above the sea in rather gentle Thames valley scenery, local heights rise imperceptibly to around 80 metres on nearby Knowl Hill. Waltham St Lawrence parish was fairly typically sized for this part of Berkshire, it covered around 3,500 acres and would have supported a population of a little over 700 parishioners. In Domesday times Waltham St Lawrence was one of the King's personal holdings, it could offer 17 ploughs and woodland making for a middling sort of place at that time.

The Church

St Lawrence's church sits at the heart of the village, at the head of The Street which runs northwards the 1/4 mile or so from the B3024. Whilst externally the church seems to be a Victorian rebuild, internally Pevsner notices preserved details which take St Lawrence back to early times, both northern and southern arcades show Norman Romanesque details in their first 2 bays, they were extended or rebuilt in the Decorated style in the remaining bays. Similarly the western window of the tower shows the intersecting tracery characteristic of a date circa 1300. These relicts are, however, the little that remains of the mediaeval as all else dates from the extensive renovation of 1847 which resulted in today's church. At the head of The Street is a large circular parking area dominated by the lychgate and massive yew of the churchyard, a knee-high brick and flint wall surrounds the churchyard. That yew together with a grouping of trees at the eastern end do somewhat limit the available angles for photography.