England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hedsor St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Hedsor lies in the extreme south of Buckinghamshire forming a stretch of the county's border, here formed by the River Thames, with neighbouring Berkshire. Hedsor is located roughly 4 miles east of the town of Great Marlow and sits about a mile east of the A4094 road which links Bourne End with Maidenhead. Hedsor is a distributed settlement with no real centre, the notional village being well away from the main group of small hamlets, Hedsor Wharf on the Thames and the estates of Hedsor House and Hedsor Court run in a loose line from west to east away from the Thames. Much of the area has been made tranquil and picturesque by the actions of the principal land-owner Lord Boston. Like many small parishes which are dominated by estates Hedsor's economy would have been controlled by the needs of those estates, mainly farming and with both farming methods involved. Much of the parish today is wooded and that would have also been exploited for woodland products. Today most visits to the parish occur along its Thames-side portion, the Thames Path National Trail passing nearby  along with innumerable water bases visits. To the south lies Cliveden, a major tourist draw in itself. The Thames drains the parish heading on its way to the capital and thence to the North Sea. Hedsor parish covers land from around 20 metres above the sea at the Thames to around 100 metres near to Wooburn Common, all rising in rolling terrain east of the Thames. Hedsor parish was tiny covering merely 450 acres yet supported a population of close to 200 parishioners, Hedsor is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits within the estate and grounds of Hedsor Priory, not a site for a religious community merely the estate of an 18th century house for the local Hynd family, it is well off the beaten track and takes dedication to find. Both nave and chancel are medieval but much else is Victorian. The main body shows 15th century windows in the chancel from the Perpendicular era but these are thought to date from a restoration/rebuild carried out prior to the death of Roland Hynd who died in 1608, the structures may well be earlier. The rough-cast bell-turret that surmounts the western end is undoubtedly from 19th century work albeit Pevsner declines to precisely date it. The vestry, aisle and porch all date from the Victorian restoration of 1862 whilst the baptistry is of 1886. Access to the church begins from Hedsor Hill where a track leaves to head uphill, the track curves around to Hedsor Priory where there is a substantial car park to its west. The churchyard lies to the north of the car park and is open and uncluttered with no obstacles for the photographer.