England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Stonehouse St Cyr

The Parish

The parish of Stonehouse lies in western central Gloucestershire about 3 miles west of the large industrial town of Stroud. Stone house is a large settlement, comparable in size with many market towns, which sits on and north of the A419 road which connects Stroud with the modern M5 motorway and also the A38 (Bristol to Birmingham) road. Stonehouse, already a substantial settlement at the time of this transcript, has enlarged still more in modern times spreading away from the River Frome, in which valley it sits, and now covering almost one and a half miles from north to south. That growth has come from industrialisation, the area is famous from early times for its cloth production and, utilising the clays of the Severn floodplain, brick works added to the employment opportunities. Of course there was farming too, largely pastoral but with a sprinkling of the local cider orchards too adding diversity. Modern developments have aided Stonehouse's growth, the Stoudwater Navigation, connecting the large town of Stroud to the Severn, arrived first to be followed by two railway lines, the Birmingham to Bristol line passing west of Stonehouse whilst the line branching off to Stroud and on to Swindon gave Stonehouse its station. There is a minor tourism interest in the area too with the Cotswold way hiking trail passing just to Stonehouse's east. The River Frome drains the parish westwards reaching the nearby Severn and the Bristol Channel through the latter's estuary. Sitting on the edge of the Cotswold range Stonehouse has a wide range of altitudes, at 20 metres by the Frome land rises to the modern suburbs at almost 70 metres above the sea whilst land rises sharply northwards to reach 220 metres on the summits lining the Cotswold escarpment. Stonehouse parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 1,500 acres it would have supported a population of a little over 2,700 parishioners. In Domesday times Stonehouse was a holding of William d'Eu mustering an impressive 22 ploughs and a pair of mills.

The Church

St Cyr's church (often rendered as St Cyril) sits in the southwestern portion of the town cheek-by-jowl with the course of the Stroudwater Navigation and at the southern end of Church Lane, a narrow lane running southwards from the A419. Little remains of the medieval in this church, the main body of what had been a building with traces back to Norman times having been demolished and rebuilt in the mid-19th century. That desecration left the western tower intact, its Perpendicular style and jaunty stair turret a contrast to the Victorian (and later) work alongside which it sits. Pevsner is not impressed stating that the 19th century church "almost dwarfs" the tower. Built in 1854 the main body of aisled nave and chancel augmented with a northern porch was added to in 1884 by the addition of both northern & southern chapels and a vestry to complete today's church. A small parking area at a triangular green sits outside the gates of a large churchyard devoid of any obstacles to the photographer, albeit the setting from across the canal is probably the better view.