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

The Parish

The parish of Hardmead lies in the extreme northeast of Buckinghamshire forming a short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Bedfordshire. Hardmead is located roughly 5 miles northeast of the market town of Newport Pagnell and sits a half mile north of the A422 road which connects Newport Pagnell through to Bedford. There is very little to modern day Hardmead, a mere scatter of farms and cottages with no real village to speak of. Hardmead sits on relatively high ground but upon a heavy clay soil which made arable farming difficult, early gazetteers estimate roughly 50/50 between arable and pastures in this largely arable region as a consequence. Hardmead is drained southwestwards by the Chicheley Brook which then meanders westwards to meet the Great Ouse near Newport Pagnell, that mighty river undergoes a major journey to eventually reach the North Sea through The Wash and the Norfolk port of King's Lynn. Hardmead is sited at around 100 metres above the sea and sits amongst a plateau-like region with similar height for some distance. Hardmead parish was small but not overly so, covering close to 1,200 acres its population, matching today's status, was tiny and less than 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Hardmead, however, claimed 36 households enough to just place it in the top 20% of settlements by population, split between 5 landholders, however, its assets were more typical of a small rural settlement offering just 8 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church sits embedded within trees on a corner of the narrow lane that passes through the hamlet. The church is the usual mish-mash of architectural styles of the medieval overlaid by extensive Victorian restoration. The earliest feature is the western unbuttressed tower where its basal stages are 13th century and Early English Gothic. Moving eastwards through the church the arcades, both southern and northern plus the chancel are from the early 14th century and in a Decorated style, the chancel is the later feature although Pevsner claims the southern arcade preceded the northern. The later 14th century and 15th century saw Perpendicular styling appear in the southern porch, the top of the tower and with the insertion of a clerestory to improve internal lighting. Pevsner list 3 phases of Victorian restoration with work in 1861, a lengthy campaign from 1872 to 1882 and topped up by yet more work in 1885.For the photographer Hardmead St Mary is perhaps one of the most difficult churches in the land to adequately photograph as it sits deeply embedded within trees right from the unmarked access point to the sides of the church itself, a major challenge indeed.