England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Alstone St Margaret

The Parish

The chapelry of Alstone, its mother parish being Overbury in Worcestershire from which it was detached, lies in the extreme north of Gloucestershire to which it was transferred from Worcestershire in 1844. Alstone is located roughly 6 miles east of the town of Tewkesbury and sits just under a mile south of the B4077 which connects the A46 near Tewkesbury through to Stow on the Wold. Alstone is a small village largely built around a "C" shape of lanes at the foot of the dramatic isolated hill of Oxenton Hill. Given the chapelry's western location farming in the time of this transcript would have been largely pastoral but today with modern machinery & fertilisers it is much more arable. Small brooks drain the parish northwards to meet the Carrant Brook which turn matters west passing through Tewkesbury to meet the Severn and turn back south until the Bristol Channel is reached through the latter's estuary. Alstone is sited at around 60 metres standing on a plain dominated by isolated outcrops forming hills such as Oxenton Hill at 223 metres and a little further south, Nottingham Hill at 279 meters and Stanley Mount at 274 both outliers of the nearby Cotswold Hills. Alstone chapelry was tiny at only 575 acres which would barely have supported 100 parishioners. Whilst Alstone is mentioned in Domesday Book no population or assets are recorded.

The Church

St Margaret's church sits on the western side of the lane which curves through the small village. The church, like so many small and once neglected churches, is ancient having its origins in the 12th century. That century is shown in the Late Norman southern doorway as well as in the piscina. The chancel arch is a little later perhaps into the 13th century and Early English Gothic, a style also indicated in the east window with its pair of trefoil-headed lancets. The final remaining piece of medieval fabric is that of the 3-bay northern arcade showing the Perpendicular style of the late 15th century. Unusually the church received major work in the early 17th century, the northern porch carries a credible date of 1621, rebuilding most of the remaining fabric. Work also followed in the typical style of the Victorian restorers in 1875 -1880 when most of the roofs were replaced. The lane through the village carries little traffic allowing safe road-side parking outside the walls, in local limestone, of the churchyard. A prominent topiaried bush is the only obstacle for the photographer and easily avoided.