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

The Parish

The parish of Ruardean lies in the extreme northwest of Gloucestershire forming a substantial stretch of the border with neighbouring Herefordshire. Ruardean is located roughly 8 miles northeast of the town of Monmouth and sits high on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean with superb views across to the mountains of Wales & the Wye valley to the northwest. Ruardean is a mid-sized village which sits roughly 2 miles north of the A4136 road which crosses the Forest of Dean from Monmouth eastwards to the A40, Ruardean also sits 2 miles east of the deeply incised valley of the Wye which performs a convoluted course of meanders deep within its valley. The economy of Ruardean would have been varied, forest products being a substantial part but underlying the forest is coal measures and some local extraction occurred supplementing the usual pastoral farming of the area. Much of the land to the south if Ruardean and within the forest was former Royal hunting forest with a history not too dissimilar to that of Hampshire's New Forest. Ruardean is drained the short distance westwards by small streams and brooks which feed into the nearby Wye which reaches the outer Bristol Channel through Chepstow. Ruardean is sited at around 200 metres above the sea in richly undulating and very picturesque landscape, Ruardean is fairly high but land continues rising to its southwest to reach just over 260 metres. By the standards of western Gloucestershire Ruardean parish was fairly small in acreage, covering around 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of just over 900 parishioners. In Domesday times Ruardean was a tiny and insignificant settlement, held by one William the son of Balderon it could muster just 3 ploughs.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits at the heart of Ruardean on the northern side of High Street which follows the slope of the land through the village. Whilst the church has its origins in the 12th century little remains of that early Norman Romanesque period beyond the southern doorway with its exquisite tympanum of St George slaying the dragon, this being set within a later 13th century porch. Pevsner tentatively dates this work to a period between 1140 & 1167. Apart from a pair of reset lancet windows in the southern aisle the 13th century Early English Gothic period is represented by the 4-bay southern arcade and both piscinae. The western tower comes next in sequence being commenced in 1364 and showing Perpendicular style windows. The topping spire is the 3rd incarnation having been rebuilt in 1768 and again in 1867. The main body of the church represents a Victorian restoration verging on a complete rebuild of 1890. The High Street is amply wide enough for parking outside the churchyard which is surrounded by a low local stone wall broken by a gated lychgate. The church sits too close to the southern edges of the churchyard to be adequately seen from the south without stepping across the road but to the north views are acceptable with no obstacles to capturing that tall spire.