England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Fretherne St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Fretherne lies in south central Gloucestershire roughly 9 miles northwest of the industrial town of Stroud and sitting on the banks of the Severn. Fretherne sits roughly a further mile northwest of the short B4071 road which connects nearby Saul through the the A38 road (connecting Gloucester to Bristol). Fretherne occupies a unique position within a great meander of the outer Severn, the parish touching the river to both north and south and separating Arlingham from the remainder of the county. Fretherne is a loosely compact village, there are properties grouped around the church with a scatter of farms and cottages across the remainder of the peninsula. Sitting of very low ground and often subject, in the past, to inundation this would largely have been a pastoral farming, mainly cattle, village. Modern developments have largely skirted Fretherne, the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal grazes the eastern edges of the parish. As an estuarine area numerous small streams and man-made ditches drain the parish into the Severn. Fretherne is sited at just 10 metres above the sea by the church but the isolated outcrop of Barrow Hill which forms the core of the meander rises to just over 60 metres. Fretherne parish is one of the county's smaller, just 500 acres supporting close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday times Fretherne was an equally out-of-the-way place, held by one Rolf's son Turstin, a rare Saxon survivor, there were just 3 ploughs as its recorded assets.

The Church

St Mary's church sits sits on the southern side of the lane that forms the spine of the meander, connecting Arlingham & fretherne with the wider road network. Whilst a medieval church once stood here today's church was not the venue for these marriages having been built to replace that earlier church in the 1840s. The church which sits here today is an example of the florid style developed by the advocates of such as Pugin, albeit he was not involved in this church. Pevsner, however, was impressed with what had been achieved describing St Mary as "small but splendid". Built largely from sandstone with Bath limestone dressings and utilising a late Decorated style it is certainly distinctive. Despite being completed in 1846 there were later changes, a decade later the southern aisle and Tierney chapel were added whilst a fyrther augmenting chapel for the Darells was added in the 1860s, the latter remarkably ornate. The whole is undoubtedly picturesque and sitting within the rather flat and stark landscape is certainly a landmark. A small space for a single car sits outside the gates and there are a few evergreens to avoid for the photographer.