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

The Parish

The parish of Aylesbury lies almost centrally within Buckinghamshire being 16 miles southeast of the town of Buckingham and sits some 38 miles northwest of London. Aylesbury is a focal point for 3 main routes, the A41 from London, following the ancient Roman route of Akeman Street, and continuing on to Bicester, the A418 arriving from Leighton Buzzard and continuing on to Thame and the A413 from Buckingham and continuing on to Amersham. Aylesbury is thus an important market town, the administrative capital of its county and a regional centre for trade and industry. Aylesbury has a long history, perhaps founded as a way station on Akeman Street that took over an Iron Age hill-fort, certainly by 571 it is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. By the end of the Late-Saxon period of the 10th & 11th century it had acquired a market, a mint and a castle, which is only recalled in the naming of one of its streets. For much of the medieval period it was as a market town supplying a centre for trade and specialist skills that the town functioned, the rich vale in which it sits, below the Chiltern ranges, being productive for livestock at that time. During the 18th century the town developed a reputation for its lace making which developed into a substantial cottage industry. In addition to lace making the town bred rabbits and the famous Aylesbury ducks for the London market. Modern developments arrived in 1815 when a branch of the Grand Union Canal arrived connecting the town more formally with the capital, soon after railways arrived with lines from London and from High Wycombe boosting trade and introducing some commuter development. Today the town remains a substantial market town which has grown to almost engulf many of the villages which once stood around it (including the former chapelry of Quarrendon which was not licensed for marriages during the transcript period), it forms a slanting oblong roughly 4 miles by 3 with an axis remaining focussed from northwest to southeast, its main economy being light industry and services. Aylesbury is drained westwards by the River Thame which makes its way eventually to the Thames at Dorchester on Thames, the latter heading back eastwards through Reading, Windsor and the capital to the North Sea. Aylesbury is sited at around 90 metres above the sea with its northern suburbs along the Thame some 20 metres lower, to the south the escarpment of the Chilterns rises dominating southern views and reaching 260 metres at Combe Hill, the local high point. The parish of Aylesbury covered close to 3,200 acres and with Quarrenden contributing a further 1,900 it was an extensive area supporting a population of close to 5,400 parishioners (by comparison in 1991 in held over 51,000). As would be expected in Domesday times Aylesbury was already large enough to be amongst the largest 20% of settlements by population, held by King William it held 20 ploughs, some meadows and 2 mills, meanwhile Quarrendon (held by Geoffrey de Mandeville) offered a further 20 ploughs, meadows and woodland.

The Church

Since the foundation of St Mary in Saxon times Aylesbury's centre has transferred southeast to the present market place leaving the parish church curiously in the northwestern area of the central town. There is evidence that St Mary was a Saxon Minster church built within the former Iron Age hill-fort that then formed the kernel of the developing town. The church has since been through several iterations since that time, the first stone-built church was erected in c1080 but nothing significant of that church remains. The construction of today's church really begins in the first half of the 13th century with the construction of a cruciform church with nave, chancel, transepts and a central crossing tower, despite all of the changes thereafter this remains the basic design. All of these main features were constructed in the Early English Gothic style of that period. During the great church-building era of the 14th and 15th centuries the church was expanded, the 14th century saw the aisles extended and the Lady Chapel added to the southern transept, the 15th century added the northern vestry, inserted a clerestory and rebuilt the southern porch, all of these changes being in the Perpendicular style. By the middle of the 19th century, however, the foundations of the church were failing and walls and pillars were leaning, it took major work from 1849 to 1855 to rectify the situation leading to a veneer of Victorianisation sitting above the medieval construct. During both 19th and 20th century periods Pevsner documents further restorations and repairs right up to replacing the panelled battlements of the crossing tower which suffered storm damage in the late 20th century. Like most town churches St Mary is one to visit after first using one of the town's car parks. The usual approach is by Church Street from where the photographer's enthusiasm will rapidly sink as the thick tree cover which surrounds the church is revealed, it takes quite a bit of scouting to find adequate viewpoints to appreciate this church.