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

The Parish

The parish of Great Horwood lies in northern Buckinghamshire roughly 6 miles southeast of the county town of Buckingham. Great Horwood sits just under a mile south of the A421 road which links Buckingham through to Milton Keynes. Great Horwood is a crossroads village formed around the junction of the B4033 (which links nearby Winslow to the A421) with east/west running lanes. Most properties sit along those side lanes, the stretch of the B4033 which kinks through the village and a small modern development to the southeast. Like most parishes in this area Great Horwood is a farming parish, early gazetteer estimates place it roughly 6-/40 in favour of pastoral methods but this has swung more to arable with the advent of modern machinery & fertilisers in modern times. Great Horwood is drained southwestwards by small brooks which coalesce into the Claydon Brook, on meeting the Padbury Brook water turns northwards to reach the Great Ouse just east of Buckingham, the Great Ouse passes through Milton Keynes, crosses through Bedfordshire and into the Fens before reaching the North Sea through the port of King's Lynn and The Wash. Great Horwood is sited on a little rise in the land at around 120 metres above the sea, land is more or less at similar heights for some distance although to the northeast a spot height just breaks the 150 metre contour as the highest ground around. Parishes in this area where larger than the custom for southern rural farming parishes, covering just under 3,200 acres Great Horwood would have supported a population of close to 700 parishioners. In the Domesday Book both Great & Little Horwood were returned as a single entity held by Walter Giffard and they constituted a much smaller community than today, 18 ploughs were recorded in 2 blocks of 9 (perhaps representing the two manors) with meadows and woodland to back them up.

The Church

St James' church sits at the heart of Great Horwood on the northern side of the B4033 which here is the High Street. This is a church which shows the 3 major styles prevalent from the 13th into the 15th centuries, the earliest fabric from the 13th century and Early English Gothic in style is solely represented by the southern doorway with its much moulded arch. The early 14th century Decorated style is found in the chancel with elaborate flowing tracery and a magnificent east window. Decorated style mouldings continue on the arch through from the western tower to the nave but the tower,itself is early Perpendicular from the latter half of the 14th century. The tower carries typical battlements and a stair-turret which rises above its top. The Perpendicular style thereafter is found through the remainder, both the aisles and arcades probably date from the early 15th century. Pevsner records two Victorian restorations, the first in the early 1860s followed by one of 1874 without detailing significant additions to the structure. The High Street has broad paved verges allowing safe on-street parking either side of the neat lychgate that grants entry to the churchyard which has no significant obstacles to concern the photographer.