England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Sodbury St Adeline

The Parish

The parish of Little Sodbury lies in southern Gloucestershire not too far from its border with neighbouring Wiltshire. Little Sodbury is located roughly 3 miles east of its larger neighbour Chipping Sodbury and sits just under a mile west of the A46 road which links Bath with Stroud along the base of the Cotswold escarpment. Little Sodbury is a small village, one of a number of spring-line settlements lining the base of the limestone escarpment, with most properties straggling along the narrow lane between church and manor house. Little Sodbury was a closed parish with all lands held by the local Hartley family, a substantial village never developed as inbound migration was effectively deterred. The parish contains a mixture of land-types from the heavier soils of the vale to the thinner soils on the limestone, a mixed farming regime would have differentially exploited these area. Small streams drain sporadically westwards away from the limestone, merging into the River Frome beyond Yate and then largely disappearing subsurface through Bristol's conurbation to emerge into the Avon and the Bristol Channel. Little Sodbury is sited at around 120 metres above the sea with the escarpment rising to the Iron Age Hill Fort that stands above at 190 metres. By the standards of its county Little Sodbury parish was one of the smaller, covering a little under 1,100 acres it would have supported a population of only just over 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Little Sodbury was equally small and rural, a property of one Bishop Gilbert Maminot it could offer merely 4 ploughs and a small meadow.

The Church

St Adeline's church, a unique dedication in England, sits at the northern end of what passes for a village on the eastern side of Cotswold Way, a reference to the National hiking trail that passes the churchyard. Sadly the only thing medieval about today's church is its footprint, the medieval church having been demolished and replaced in 1859, thus it was not the venue of the marriages listed here. Pevsner does indicate that some material from the predecessor was reused in the construction of this church and the use of the Perpendicular style throughout is perhaps nodding reference to the style of what was lost. Visiting is made relatively easy by an off-road driveway extending to the gates. For the photographer, however, St Adeline presents something of a challenge as it sits within a virtual forest of mature conifers making most normal aspects impossible to exploit.