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

The Parish

The parish of Miserden lies in central Gloucestershire about 6 miles northeast of the town of Stroud. Miserden is a small and compact village which sits a little over 2 miles west of the A417 road which connects Gloucester with Cirencester. Miserden sits in a rather picturesque position on the edge of the deeply incised valley of the River Frome, the dell thickly wooded in contrast to the bare limestone plateau into which it is cut. Within the valley there is the former motte & bailey of the Musard castle built soon after the Conquest. The village has some attractive estate houses whilst the parish is dominated by the grounds of Miserden Park and its 17th century mansion built for the Sandys family. Within the bounds of the parish lies a more modern foundation, the Whiteway Colony founded to follow the teaching of Tolstoy and dedicated to self-sufficiency. At the time of this transcript Miserden was largely a farming community with the majority of land set to arable, in this respect little has changed. The Frome drains the parish southwards then turns westward to flow through Stroud and into the Severn, thence to the sea through the Bristol Channel. Miserden is fairly elevated for its county standing at 240 metres above the sea, land rise just a little more to top out at 265 metres on the nearby Calf Way, an ancient drove-way. Miserden parish was fairly typically sized for the Cotswolds, covering close to 2,200 acres it would have supported a population of around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times one Hascoit Musard held the parish and it was a middling sort of place offering 12 ploughs as well as the usual meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Andrew's church sits towards the western end of the village, tucked away behind fronting properties north of the main village lane. Whilst the church has ancient and pre-Conquest origins it is heavily restored during a restoration of 1866 which according to Pevsner "destroyed most of its archaeological interest". Despite these, perhaps justified, complaints some trace of the church's origins remains. Anglo-Saxon remains as shown by the door-heads with their plain round-headed arches whilst Norman Romanesque and early English Gothic lancet windows survive in both chancel and southern chapel. Evidence of earlier rebuilding comes in the form of the western tower which is 14th century and Perpendicular in style, the west window and a nave window also show this style as evidence of rework. But it is to 1866 where extensive work was conducted where besides remodeling the northern transept was rebuilt and a southern two-bay aisle added joining the southern chapel to the porch. Parking is facilitated by spaces alongside the war memorial and opposite a lychgate leads to the short walk across to the church, the churchyard has some imposing trees, particular around the church's eastern end, which do somewhat limit the angles available for photography.