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

The Parish

The parish of Broughton lies in northeastern Buckinghamshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Bedfordshire. Broughton is located roughly 3 miles south of the market town of Newport Pagnell and sits about a quarter mile east of the A509 road which links Milton Keynes through Newport Pagnell to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. Broughton is a place which has changed markedly over the centuries, at the time of this transcript it was a small and compact village gathered around its church and a lane which ran from northwest to southeast through it. Nowadays Broughton sits on the very eastern edges of Milton Keynes New Town, swallowed beneath modern developments and a maze of lanes & the notorious roundabouts of that new town. Like most parishes in this area Broughton would have been a farming parish and mostly arable in its nature. Modern developments surround the former village, besides the New Town's features the modern M1 motorway from London to the north passes just to its east with Milton Keynes parkway coach station also taking a swathe of the former village's land adjacent to the motorway. The River Ouzal, also known as the Lovat, drains the parish northwards the short distance to the Great Ouse from where a long journey to the North Sea takes place arriving through The Wash & the Norfolk port of King's Lynn. Broughton is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in gentle terrain, land rises away from the river eastwards into Bedfordshire where local high spots o just over 100 metres can be found near Cranfield.At just over 1,000 acres Broughton parish was small for its county, that acreage supporting around 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Broughton was equally small and rural, shared between Walter Giffard & Countess Judith it could offer 9 ploughs, a small meadow but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Lawrence's church sits within the core of "old" Broughton slightly west of London Road and accessed by a short dead-end lane at a triangular green. At Pevsner's visit the church had been deconsecrated and was owned and managed by the Redundant Churches Trust. The church is a mixture of the styles prevalent in the 14th century, whilst most of the fabric of both nave and chancel is in the Decorated style of the first half thereof some windows of the nave to both northwest and southwest are slightly later and in Perpendicular styling. On that theme one finds a typical western tower in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century. Given the smooth transition in style it is likely the church was initially completed in a single build phase. The church, however, is one in which the Victorians dabbled extensively, a first restoration is given as 1859 but between 1864 & 1881 the church was sporadically restored in phases at the behest of one William White. Parking for the church is best at that green where a short walk leads to a dark & shady entrance. Photographers are grateful, however, when the shade is left behind and an extensive churchyard with most aspects unimpeded arises.