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

The Parish

The parish of Wilburton lies in northern Cambridgeshire roughly 6 miles southwest of the city of Ely. Wilburton sits on the A1123 road which links Soham with the Huntingdonshire town of St Ives. Wilburton is a mid-sized village largely built along the A1123 but with extensions south along the B1049, which forms the main junction within the village, and also to the north around an oval of smaller lanes. Wilburton is built along a low ridge of drier land, which is largely followed by the A1123, in the midst of Fenland, the rich soils of the peaty fen are ideal for the growing of high value table vegetables whilst the drier ground is typically used for cereal production. Much of the drainage hereabouts is man-influenced to drain the fen, most water eventually makes its way to the nearby Great Ouse which forms the southern boundary of the parish, the Great Ouse crosses the Fens to King's Lynn, the Wash and the North Sea. Wilburton is sited at around 20 metres above the sea, the ridge gently rises westwards to reach it high point in nearby Haddenham at 35 metres but most parish land is at or close to sea level. Most parishes within Fenland are exceptionally large in extent containing large tracts of reclaimed land, Wilburton on the other hand is exceptional in being little more extensive than a typical lowland rural parish in southern England, covering just over 2,200 acres it would have supported around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Wilburton was a holding of Ely Abbey and a large rural settlement of its day holding 14 ploughs as well as some meadows.

The Church

St Peter's church sits towards the western end of the village and sits on the northern side of the A1123 as it leaves toward Haddenham. Following the end of the Black Death period there saw an explosion of church-building in the 14th & 15th centuries, Wilburton's church was originally built in the 13th but was the subject of an intense rebuild during this Perpendicular era under the auspices of one Bishop Alcock and between 1486 & 1500. Of the original Early English Gothic church the only substantial pieces of fabric that remain are the basal stages of the western tower and its tower arch, in the porch 2 fragments of shafts seem to have been retained as mementos. Bishops Alcock's men have built a substantial building with an aisle-less nave of 4 bays together with a chancel, southern porch, northeastern vestry and completed today's tower with its spire. Whilst this late medieval work was extensive it didn't preclude more modern intervention as no fewer than 3 phases of substantial restoration are recorded by Pevsner. The first, by the notorious Pugin, was in 1848 affected merely the chancel whereas that major restoration of 1868 saw the addition of a transept to the north as well as refreshing the whole church. Further modern work in 1990 replaced much of the original medieval window tracery to complete today's building. The one-way lane of Church Lane which leads north from the A1123 is quiet enough for parking outside the heavily wooded churchyard, best view in landscape are actually from the street whilst trees make for difficult viewing from within the churchyard.