England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Siddington St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Siddington St Mary (centred on the village of Upper Siddington) lies in south eastern Gloucestershire forming part of the border with neighbouring Wiltshire. Upper Siddington lies about 2 miles south of the large market town of Cirencester and sits around 3/4 of a mile west of the A419 road which connects Cirencester through to Swindon. St Mary's parish was dissolved in 1778 and merged with that of Siddington St Peter based upon the main village a quarter mile east of Upper Siddington. A typical mixed farming community Upper Siddington has now almost been absorbed as a suburb to its growing neighbour. The River Churn drains the parish southeastwards merging into the Thames north of Cricklade, thence to the North Sea through the capital. Upper Siddington is sited at around 110 metres above the sea in gentle valley countryside where local heights barely rise a further 10 metres for some distance. The joint parish of St Mary & St Peter covered a respectable 2,000 acres of which St Mary formed around 1/3rd of the western portion. Collectively the joint parish would have supported around 450 parishioners. Siddington was recorded a single entity in Domesday Book, shared between Roger de Lacy, Hascoit Musard and Humphrey the Chamberlain, it collectively offered an impressive 20 ploughs, meadows, pasture & woodlands and 2 mills, making it one of the largest 20% of settlements recorded in that book, a much smaller place today.

The Church

St Mary's church was demolished in 1778 a year after the final marriage took place. With such an early removal little is known about it's architecture other than it was medieval in age. The cutting of the Thames & Severn canal would have passed very close to its churchyard of which all trace is now removed.