England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oakington St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Oakington lies in central Cambridgeshire about 5 miles northwest of the city of Cambridge. Oakington is a substantial compact village formed around a crossroads of lanes about 2 miles northeast of the busy A14 road, the main lane connects the A14 with the larger village of Cottenham to Oakington's northeast. Oakington sits at the southern end of Cambridgeshire's Fens, the low lying countryside begins to rise gently to the south but Oakington is very much a Fenland village. Nowadays the area is totally devoted to growing crops on the peat-rich soils but in the past a more varied regime would have existed as pastures, wildfowlers, reed-cutters and watermen varied the employment spectrum. Most of the drainage in the parish is man-impacted, serving to drain water quickly from the land, the principal drain heads northeastwards becoming Cottenham Lode and drains into the Great Ouse and thence The Wash. Oakington is sited at just 10 metres above the sea, enough to keep its feet dry, however. As a Fen edge parish Oakington is fairly typically sized, true Fen parishes have large areas but the edge parishes are smaller. Oakington parish covered around 1,200 acres and supported a population of over 600 parishioners. In Domesday times Oakington was sufficiently large and prosperous to be split by 5 differing landholders, the combined assets included 14 ploughs and some meadows.

The Church

St Andrew's church lies on the southern side of High Street, this is not the main lane through the village but a parallel smaller route. Pevsner hints at a very early date for some of the fabric, possibly Norman and certainly of the late 12th or early 13th centuries. Chancel and tower are the earliest substantial pieces again 13th century, much else was rebuilt during the classic church building era of the perpendicular and, of course, the Victorians also had their way adding the southern porch and replacing some windows. The church is protected from the village street by a line of trees, no fence or wall, a sloping path enters from the western end giving a good view of the tower. Inside the graveyard there are few restrictions to photography.