England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Oxenton St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Oxenton lies in northern Gloucestershire, indeed it forms part of the rather ragged border with neighbouring Worcestershire. Oxenton is sited at the foot of the Cotswold hills about 5 miles east of the market town of Tewkesbury. The village is set at the foot of Oxenton Hill, an outlier of the main Cotswold range, to the east of the A435 road which connects Bishop's Cleeve with the road to Evesham from Tewkesbury. Oxenton village is set along a narrow lane which heads towards Oxenton Hill from the main road and eventually forms a track which heads up the hill (part of the Gloucestershire Way footpath). The village is at 40 metres above sea level but land rises to the east to well above 200 metres on the neighbouring hill. The area falls away to the west as part of the great Severn plain, a largely pastoral area in the past but now increasingly turning arable. The parish was small one barely 1,000 acres and supported only 130 or so parishioners. The village was clearly more substantial in Domesday times, the entry in Domesday Book details no fewer than 12 ploughs on land belonging to the Tewkesbury church.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church is sited just to the north of the eastward running lane set a hundred yards north up a farm access lane on rising ground dominated by Oxenton Hill to its east. The church has a western tower, nave and northern aisle, chancel and southern porch. Pevsner is very impressed with the credentials of St John's describing at as an "almost unspoiled medieval church". The church dates from the 13th century and is almost wholly in a mixture of Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The Victorians, for once, did not inflict their insensitive restorations and work in the early 20th century was much more sympathetic leaving a very impressive structure largely intact but secure. The church stands in a grassy graveyard with mature trees surrounding and open fields giving expansive views to the north - a very pleasant site.