England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wytham All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Wytham lies in the extreme north of the ancient county of Berkshire, within that part transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974, and forms an extensive part of the border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Wytham is located about 3 miles northwest of the city of Oxford. Wytham sits on the western banks of the Seacourt Stream a separate channel of the Thames which forms the county border, the village sits a half mile west of the busy A34 road which here forms part of Oxford's outer ring-road. Wytham is a small and compact village nestling below the hill of Wytham Hill covered by the grounds of Wytham Park & Woods and extensive area much studied by the academics of the Oxford Colleges. At time of this transcript Wytham would have been a small farming community, arable on higher ground whilst the Thames valley's extensive pastures provided grazing. The Seacourt Stream & Thames drain the parish eastwards, through the capital to reach the North Sea by the Thames Estuary. Wytham is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, the land is mostly gently rolling but Wytham Hill dominates rising to 164 metres a miles west of the village. Wytham parish was fairly typically sized for Berkshire, it covered just over 1,100 acres and would have supported a population of just under 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Wytham was held by Abingdon Abbey and was a small place offering just a pair of ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

All Saints' church is tucked away but still relatively centrally placed for the village, a narrow lane (Cumnor Place) heads uphill westwards and curves around to the churchyard. Whilst outwardly a fairly typical parish church, in fact the church was extensively rebuilt in 1811 at the expense of Lord Abingdon. Fortunately for the dating evidence there was clearly much reuse of materials to make an educated guess. The church was one which traversed the changing fashion styles of Decorated & Perpendicular periods and was thus a product of the 14th perhaps 15th centuries like many such churches. It is perhaps better to park in the village and walk to the church which is accessed through an arched stone gateway. Unfortunately for the photographer the church is rather hemmed in from the normal southern aspects by trees making for a tricky subject on a sunny day.