England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Barton Hartshorn St James

The Parish

The parish of Barton Hartshorn lies in the extreme west of Buckinghamshire forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Barton Hartshorn is located roughly 4 miles west of the county town of Buckingham and sits just under a mile east of the A4421 which connects the Oxfordshire town of Bicester through towards Buckingham. Barton Hartshorn is a tiny place little more than a hamlet with a few properties along a lane leading eastwards from the A4421 but with no defined village. Like most parishes in this area it would have been a farming community, the clay rich soils were difficult to work prior to modern machinery so a mixed farming regime would have dominated. Barton Hartshorn is drained by a small tributary of the Padbury Brook, one of the streams which form the headwaters of the Great Ouse which is soon joined, the latter heads on a long journey to reach the North Sea through The Wash. Barton Hartshorn is sited at around 100 metres above the sea in a broad plateau-like region where local heights barely reach a further 10 metres higher for some distance. Barton Hartshorn parish was one of the smaller in its area, covering just under 900 acres it would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Barton Hartshorn was an equally small place in Domesday times, a holding of the ubiquitous Bishop Odo of Bayeux it could offer merely 3 ploughs together with the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St James' church sits south of the main lane through the parish in company with the "Manor House" and a couple of farms. The church is one which has seen many changes over the centuries with the earliest part shown by the nave. Here one finds a lancet style window in the western face which dates to the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style, the southern doorway also dates from this period. That changes were wrought in the great church-building era of the 14th century is evidenced by the windows of the southern face showing the Perpendicular style of that period, the windows of the corresponding northern face were, however, replaced in Tudor times. Modern restorations began in the 1840s from when the transepts, bellcote and chancel all date. A further restoration in 1905 saw the church re-roofed, the east window and those of the transepts replaced as well as refreshing the church's interior. From the lane a small farm access leads southeast to access the churchyard, parking can be found around its entrance. The churchyard, whilst compact and surrounded by trees, has most angles available to the photographer.