England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Lechlade St Lawrence

The Parish

The parish of Lechlade sits in the extreme east of Gloucestershire and, prior to county reorganisation in 1974, formed part of the boundary with 3 other counties, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire & Berkshire. Lech lade is located roughly 28 miles southeast of the county town of Gloucester and sits on the banks of the River Thames. Lechlade is a small market town which sits at the crossroads of the A417 (Cirencester to Wantage) road with the A361 (Swindon to Burford) and at the crossing of the latter over the Thames. It is the Thames to which Lechlade owes its importance, the stone bridge of the A361 formerly marked the highest navigable point of the river and Lechlade grew as an inland port shipping the wool, corn, cheese and Cotswold stone downriver to the capital. A market was granted as early as 1120 and Lechlade also had a role as a local market for its hinterland, a function which has largely been usurped by the growth of Swindon in more recent times. Modern developments came and left Lechlade, the Thames & Severn canal was built in 1789 and a railway line followed but both have largely disappeared from use. Today Lechlade is a tourist town, pretty as a picture and full of the kind of shops that meet that special trade, a market town still but one dominated by its visitors. The Thames drains the parish eastwards, a long journey to reach the capital and then the North Sea. Lechlade is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, the land rises gently westwards towards the nearby Cotswolds but barely reaches 100 metres within a mile or two. Lechlade parish was towards the larger end of Gloucestershire's scale, covering a little over 3,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,300 parishioners. In Domesday times Lechlade was already an important place, its population placing it amongst the top 20% of settlements recorded within that book, held by Henry de Ferrers it offered an impressive 20 ploughs as well as 3 mills and a fishery making for a wealthy holding indeed.

The Church

St Lawrence's church stands close to the Thames and dominating the Market Place formed by the staggered crossroads of the two major routes. Pevsner rightly describes it as "one of the great Gloucestershire wool churches" for it was the wool trade that enabled its construction in a lavish late Perpendicular style. A large church, as befits a wealthy market town, consisting of the nave, augmented with a clerestory, chancel, with both northern & southern chapels, and western tower, capped by a soaring spire, the whole augmented by aisles. The former Priory of St Johns which sat within the town was suppressed in 1472 and it is around that date that work started on St Lawrence. The build clearly took some time as both 15th and 16th century motifs can be found within the design. As with most churches a Victorian restoration, in this case in the 1880s, took place but did not significantly alter the fabric. If one is fortunate or very early parking can be found in the Market Place over which that soaring spire looms, whilst the churchyard is lengthy on an east to west axis it is tight to both north and south removing most of the favoured aspects from the photographer's arsenal and making for a challenge to adequately capture the building.