England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pebworth St Peter

The Parish

Pebworth parish has been something of a complication for administrators over the years, historically one of the most northeastern parishes in Gloucestershire it was transferred to Worcestershire during a reorganisation of 1931 wherein it became the easternmost parish in that county. The area of Gloucestershire in which it sat extends as a peninsula of Gloucestershire deep into the space of both Worcestershire and Warwickshire and is also close to Oxfordshire. Pebworth is located roughly 6 miles north of the market town of Chipping Camden and a similar distance northeast of Evesham. Pebworth sits within an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest being the B4632 which connects Stratford upon Avon with Winchcombe. Pebworth is a mid-sized and compact village with most properties clustered around a double oval of lanes forming the core. Pebworth sits just west of the main range of the Cotswold Hills on the plain that forms the Vale of Evesham, sitting upon a stiff clay the main economic activity would have been pastoral farming, today with modern heavy machinery the landscape has become more arable. Pebworth is drained northwards by the Noleham Brook the short distance to join the River Avon, here matters turn west eventually reaching the Severn at Tewkesbury and the sea through the Bristol Channel. Pebworth is sited at around 60 metres above the sea, a general level for the area around it with land rising only when the Cotswold outlier of Meon Hill is reached the  summit being 194 metres. Pebworth was a slightly larger parish than is usual for its area, covering close to 3,000 acres it would have supported a population of around 800 parishioners. In Domesday times Pebworth was an altogether smaller place offering just a single plough to its major landholder one William Goizenboded.

The Church

St Peter's church lies on the western edge of the village, Front Street performs a circuitous routing around 3 sides of the churchyard enclosing that within. Whilst there has undoubtedly been a church here since at least the 13th century, the major rebuild which happened in the Perpendicular era c1500 has all but erased every trace of the earlier incarnations. Pevsner notes some late 13th century trefoil-headed lancets and a single Decorated style nave window but otherwise all else is Perpendicular or from later rework. In a will recorded in 1528 the southern aisle is given a dating being described as "new" and this appears typical of the dates derived from styling. A Victorian restoration, which Pevsner neglects to date, undoubtedly took place as evidenced by the four dormers piercing the roof which were added at that time. Parking can be made on Front Street with care outside the eastern entrance where a short flight of steps leads through the shady trees into the churchyard, once within the are no major obstacles for the photographer.