England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bassingbourn St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Bassingbourn lies in the extreme southwest of Cambridgeshire forming not only a stretch of the border with neighbouring Hertfordshire but also in being close to Bedfordshire, too. Bassingbourn is located roughly 3 miles northwest of the Hertfordshire town of Royston and sits just west of the A1198 road which connects Royston with Huntingdon. The A1198 follows the ancient route of the Roman Road of Ermine Street and many stretches are characteristically straight as a consequence. Bassingbourn parish has two distinct settlements, the village itself is a mid-sized crossroads settlement a mile to the west of the A1198 whilst Kneesworth sits on that road, the two are nowadays connected by a string of properties along the lane which joins them. Bassingbourn sits just north of the chalk-ridge which forms the northern reaches of Hertfordshire, a steadily descending plain leading into Cambridgeshire's Fenlands, this is rich and fertile soil and arable farming dominates the landscape of broad and extensive field largely devoid of the hedging that would once have been here. Bassingbourn has expanded greatly in modern times, its proximity to Royston and also to Cambridge promoting new housing, a process which is enhance by the presence of the nearby barracks, an operations training base. Bassingbourn is drained northeastwards by small streams heading for the nearby Cam, the latter joins the Great Ouse to the south of Ely before reaching the North Sea through The Wash. Bassingbourn is sited at around 30 metres above the sea, land rises southwards to a mini-escarpment on reaching chalk where local heights top out at 127 metres on nearby Therfield Heath. This southwestern corner of the county has several larger parishes with Bassingbourn covering close to 3,400 acres and supporting just under 1,800 parishioners. In Domesday times Bassingbourn was largely held by Count Alan of Brittany with the Bishop of Winchester also having a substantial portion, collectively their assets totalled an impressive 24 ploughs, substantial meadows and no fewer than 4 mills, the population was such as to make Bassingbourn one of the largest 20% of settlements in that book.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits on the eastern side of North End, a lane leading, as it suggests, northwards from the village's main crossroads. The church is one sufficiently interesting architecturally to merit a substantial entry within Pevsner. Pride of place goes to the church's chancel, documentary evidence dates the completion to between 1340 & 1350 and Pevsner describes it as "a complete and remarkably personally designed piece of Decorated architecture". The chancel is a magnificent example of this style and is relatively unsullied by later change. The church seems to have been completed from east to west with the nave, complete with a Perpendicular style clerestory, being later than the chancel. Westwards still we come to an anomalous tower, this piece was rebuilt in 1879 but in the earlier early English Gothic style out-of-kilter with the remainder of the church. Thankfully this rebuild was the major piece of that late-Victorian restoration leaving the remainder to be appreciated. North End is sufficiently broad to enable street parking. The churchyard is surrounding by neatly clipped hedging with a wooden gate at the southern corner. The churchyard is constrained b being largely oblong with little space to the south of the church, thus removing a true landscape profile from the photographer's arsenal, otherwise the conifers which decorate the churchyard are relatively minor additional challenges to the photographer.