England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Duxford St John

The Parish

Duxford is unusual in having two parishes within what would have merely been a large village before 20th century expansion. St John's parish forming the northern & smaller half of that village. Duxford lies in the extreme south of Cambridgeshire forming part of the border with neighbouring Essex. Duxford sits just a mile south of the A505 road which connects the Hertfordshire town of Royston through to the A11, the route following one of the diverse routes that formed the ancient Icknield Way. At the time of this transcript Duxford would have been a farming community, largely arable but augmented by pastures along the nearby River Cam, today Duxford has grown substantially due to its communications links, Cambridge to London rail line passes through the gap between village and river and a nearby station offers fast commuting to both Cambridge and the capital, the modern M11 motorway also passes close by. Duxford is perhaps most famous today for the reuse of its 2nd World War airfield, now the home of the Imperial War Museum which stages an Air-show attracting multitudes to the area. The Cam drains the parish northwards through Cambridge and across the Fens, joining the Great Ouse to reach the sea through The Wash. Duxford is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in gentle terrain which rises gradually towards the chalky higher ground to the southwest reaching close to 100 metres within a few miles. The joint parishes would have formed a large parish for the area, it is, however, difficult to establish the acreage of each individual parish, collectively they covered just over 3,100 acres and supported a joint population of close to 750 parishioners, it is suspected that a 1/3rd to 2/3rds split probably occurred with St John the smaller. The situation was similar in Domesday times where the two parishes were returned as a single entity, held by 4 large holdings plus one smaller collectively the parishes could offer 14 ploughs, substantial meadows and woodland plus 4 mills, a doubtful figure as the holdings of Count Eustace & Robert de Trosny appear to be duplicated.

The Church

St John's church lies in the northern portion of the village along St John's Street from the main High Street. The church has ancient origins with Norman Romanesque, and possibly earlier features, the earliest is possibly Anglo-Saxon as the artwork of a painted cross shows a style more typical of the Anglo-Saxon's than the Norman's. Certainly Norman and 12th century the arches between both nave and chancel and the crossing tower. The tower itself shows bell-openings from styles current in the 13th century whilst the chancel shows lancet windows of the Early English Gothic style. As is fairly typical work also occurred in the Perpendicular era from whence both arcades and the southern porch date. The church sits, in an elevated position, on the southern side of St John's Street with the main entrance through the flint & brick walls of the churchyard being from Green Street. The churchyard is free of any obstructions to photography.