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

The Parish

The parish of Upper Slaughter lies in eastern Gloucestershire not too far from its border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Upper Slaughter sits in the Cotswold Hills about 3 miles west of the market town of Stow on the Wold. Upper Slaughter is a small and picture postcard Cotswold village sitting about a mile north west of the A429 road which connects Stow on the Wold with Cirencester and which follows the line of the Roman Fosse Way. Upper Slaughter is tucked away in lanes in the valley of the River Eye. At the time of this transcript the main economy would have been arable farming although some quarrying of the local limestone certainly took place. The River Eye drains the parish southeastwards to join the Windrush, the latter eventually joins with the Thames a few miles west of Oxford before reaching the North Sea through the Thames Estuary. Upper Slaughter is sited at around 150 metres above the sea albeit sunk into a deeply incised valley cut some 60 metres into the local height level, Upper Slaughter parish was of a fairly typical size for the area, it covered just over 1,700 acres and would have supported a population of around 230 parishioners. In Domesday times Upper Slaughter, held by Roger de Lacy, was a tiny place offering just 4 ploughs and a mill.

The Church

St Peter's church sits at the heart of Upper Slaughter, it sits at the northwestern corner of the main village square and is set back a little behind properties. The church has its origins in the Norman period, probably 12th century but has been much altered with reuse of original features over the centuries to such an extent that even Pevsner was unclear as to the sequence of events pertaining. A major rebuild of the 15th century added the tower but this was inserted into the Norman nave and in 1877 a restoration variously described as "major" and as "careful" compound the uncertainty over dating. Remarkably the chancel, rebuilt in the 14th century remains almost untouched. From "The Square" where there is parking a short road leads to wooden gates granting access to the churchyard. Once inside there are relatively few obstacles to photography albeit the church is a little hemmed in from the west.