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

The Parish

The parish of Hanslope lies in the extreme north of Buckinghamshire forming an extensive stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Hanslope is located roughly 6 miles northwest of the market town of Newport Pagnell and at the time of this transcript sat within an area devoid of major numbered roads, the closest being the B526, some 3 miles east, which connects Newport Pagnell with Northampton. Hanslope is a substantial village, indeed for a short while it functioned as a small market town with a Thursday market and an annual 15 day fair, both sadly no longer in operation. Hanslope was a centre for the lace making industry, a practice carried out in the home rather than in factory production, which at one time employed around 500 in the village, outwith the village a normal rural farming parish could be found, largely arable, some pasture with incomes topped up by extraction of the local stone for road work and local building. Modern developments have come to Hanslope which nowadays sits midway between the London to Birmingham railway line, which came first, and the modern M1 motorway which certainly ended the dearth of numbered roads and which runs a little over a mile to the northeast. Small trbutaries of the nearby River Tove drain westwards into that river which heads south and also soon meets the Great Ouse on the northern edges of Milton Keynes New Town, from here a long journey to the North Sea which is met through The Wash. Hanslope sits on a ridge of higher ground than prevails in northern Buckinghamshire at around 110 metres above the sea, land falls away gently from that height in all directions. Hanslope parish was one of the larger within its county, covering almost 5,300 acres it was largely carved piecemeal from the ancient Salcey Forest, that acreage would have supported a population of just over 1,550 parishioners. In Domesday times Hanslope was already an important settlement, held by one Winemar of Flanders its population placed it among the top 20% in that book, a prosperous place offering an impressive 31 ploughs, some meadow, a stretch of woodland occupied by 1,000 pigs and also had a mill, an important holding indeed.

The Church

St James' church sits towards the southern end of the village tucked away behind fronting properties and accessed from the main lane through the village by The Green. Not that such an impressive tower could hide itself easily, originally 200 feet in height it was, sadly, struck by lightning in 1804 and damaged being shortened by 20 feet as a result. Nevertheless it is an impressive landmark for its district given it stands already on the highest ground for some distance. The tower is one of the later medieval parts of the church and is Perpendicular in style. The church has a much longer history than that of the tower, impressive as it is; the main body of the church, the nave and chancel are both Norman Romanesque in origin having a 12th century date, both have, however, been extensively modified since those early origins. Aisles were added to that main body in the 13th century and a few windows replaced, the construction of the tower in the Perpendicular style was also matched by rebuilding the arcades. Much restoration and rework followed in more modern times, work c1800 was followed by a major restoration of the 1860s whilst as recently as the 1920s the nave roof was replaced. Careful parking on The Green is available with a branch leading onward to the gated entry, it is fortunate indeed that the churchyard is extensive allowing one to get back sufficiently far to adequately capture the full height of that immense tower.