England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bledlow Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish of Bledlow lies in western central Buckinghamshire and forms an extensive portion of the border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Bledlow is located about 5 miles southeast of the Oxfordshire market town of Thame and sits on the B4009 road which follows the ancient pathways along the base of the Chiltern's Ridge. Bledlow is a fairly dispersed village most properties built to the south of the B4009 on a rectangle of lanes which together with those on the B road form an oblong of settlement with Church End to the south holding most properties. Bledlow parish is one of a series of parishes along the base of the Chilterns which is stretched out in a northwest to southeast axis yet relatively thin in the opposite axis, this being done to maximise each parish's access to the various land uses offered by the Vale, the escarpment and the ridge. Bledlow would have received some growth from the creation of a rail line - this is now closed and run as a heritage line. A typical farming community the mixture varying from sheep on the Chilterns through to arable in the Vale. Bledlow is drained northwestwards by the Cuttle Brook which joins the Thame near to Thame, this eventually reaches the Thames, flows through the capital to the North Sea. Bledlow is sited at between 90 & 110 metres above the sea, the B4009 being lower than Church End, land, however, rises steeply to the southeast onto the Chiltern escarpment where local heights reach to over 230 metres on Bledlow Ridge. Bledlow parish was slightly larger than its near neighbours, covering just over 4.100 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,200 parishioners. In Domesday times Bledlow was a holding of Count Robert of Mortain, a prosperous place offering 14 ploughs, substantial woodland populated by 1,00 pigs and also possessed a mill.

The Church

Holy Trinity church is, as one would expect, at the higher southern end of the oblong, Church End. There is a few details remaining from what was undoubtedly a 12th century Norman origin to the building, Pevsner is sceptical, however, whether the original building was cruciform with crossing tower & transepts. There was, however, a marked rebuild in the 13th century Early English Gothic style. The most significant piece of 12th century fabric is the northern doorway albeit reused in that later build. The tower, nave and chancel are, thus, fundamentally 13th century augmented with some Decorated style flourishes from the succeeding century, the southern porch and small turrets are from that later period. Like most church the Victorians made their usual restoration, in this case in the late 1870s but the changes made were light and left much remaining from the origins. The church sits on Church End, broad enough for careful parking, behind a low brick & flint wall with entrance at the western end of the site. The churchyard has few obstructions for photographers making for a straightforward subject.