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

The Parish

The parish of Rodmarton lies in the extreme south of Gloucestershire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Wiltshire. Rodmarton is located roughly 6 miles southwest of the market town of Cirencester and sits a half mile north of the A433 road which links Cirencester with Tetbury. Rodmarton is an estate village dominated by Rodmarton Manor, built in the early 20th century it is reckoned to be one of the finest "Arts & Crafts" country houses in the land. Much of the village is made up of a row of 19th century estate cottages with most properties sitting either side of the lane running to Tarlton. Rodmarton sits on oolitic limestone, it was poor quality building stone so mainly excavated for stone walling, that have sweet pasture for the sheep which bedecked this area supplying their wool in the Middle Ages to the cloth makers of Cirencester and Tetbury. The A433 road follows the line of the ancient Roman Road, Fosse Way, and many remains of villas have been found in the area including splendid tessellated floors, from earlier occupation there are also tumuli and long barrows from pre-Roman times. Rodmarton sits on the porous limestone with no surface drainage within the parish, to the northeast at Thames Head the great river rises from a spring beneath a tree, most of Rodmarton's water making its way there subsurface. The Thames heads off southeast, accompanied by the Thames Path National Trail, passing through major cities en route to the capital before reaching the Outer Thames Estuary and the North Sea. Rodmarton is sited at around 150 metres above the sea, the immediate surroundings are at this height or marginally higher for some distance in a plateau-like area. Rodmarton parish was extensive, covering almost 4,000 acres which would have supported a population of close to 450 parishioners. In Domesday times Rodmarton was a tiny settlement of just 6 households, shared between Bishop Gilbert of Lisieux and one Osward it offered merely 4 ploughs as its assets.

The Church

Twin lanes converge eastwards at the church which sits on the northern side of the apex of that fork. St Peter is largely a church of the 13th & 14th centuries, albeit Pevsner speculates that the round-headed rere-arch of the southern doorway could be 12th century and Norman Romanesque. Lancet styled Early English Gothic windows are retained in both the south wall of the nave and the western wall of the northern transept, the northern doorway, too, is probably contemporary. The church was much extended in the early 14th century with the northern transept lengthened to form a northern chapel, the southern chapel is of a similar age as is the attractive southern transeptal tower complete with its lead-covered splay-footed spire. During the Perpendicular period of the 15th century the principal change was the remodelling of the nave which also acquired its battlements and southern doorway. A Tudor southern window and priests' door completes the early fabric. A typical Victorian restoration of 1862 is recorded which created the narrow western arch from the arcades into the chancel as well as restoring the remainder. The twin lanes converge enclosing a triangular village green around which on-street parking may be found, the church stands some distance back within the chuchyard which has few obstacles to concern the photographer.