England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Salperton All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Salperton lies in eastern Gloucestershire about 6 miles west of Bourton on the Water. Salperton is a small village which sits about 2 miles south of the A436 road which connects Bourton on the Water through to Cheltenham. Salperton was an estate village with land almost totally held by a single landowner, as a result no substantial village developed and most were employed in the service of the estate. The estate, Salperton Park, sits just south of the village and has extensive landscaped parkland containing house & church. Salperton was a farming village with a mixed regime in place although the soils being thin and stony were best suited to sheep grazing. Modern developments did temporarily intervene but the railway line connecting Bourton on the Water to Cheltenham has long since closed and been dismantled. A series of "winter-bournes" sporadically drain Salperton eastwards towards the nearby River Windrush the latter eventually joining the Thames in Oxfordshire before reaching the North Sea through the Thames Estuary. Salperton is sited at around 210 metres above the sea with the church sitting some 40 metres higher within the park, land continues to rise more gently to a local height of 270 metres. By Gloucestershire standards Salperton was a relatively small parish, covering just 1,400 acres it would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Salperton was held by the, amusingly named, Hugh the Ass, a modest place offering 10 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

All Saints church sits within the landscaped parkland of the estate about a half mile south of the village of Salperton. All Saints is an ancient church with its origins in the early 12th century, the basic structure of nave & chancel are Norman Romanesque in style although later modifications have been made even to this portion. Inserted Early English Gothic lancet windows in the chancel reveal changes wrought in the 13th century whilst the tower arch is Perpendicular and probably late 14th century. Restorations of 1850, minor window replacement, and 1885, a more major piece of work, result in today's building. As one heads south from the village the gates of the estate are marked by a sign directing to Hall and church, head east and south to reach the churchyard which has few obstructions to photography.